The Suzanne Haskew Arts Center (The SHAC)

The SHAC — short for the Suzanne Haskew Arts Center — is downtown Milford’s creative living room, and one of the nicer surprises in a town better known for its river and its restaurants. It’s the brick-and-mortar home of the Village Fine Arts Association, a nonprofit that’s been championing local artists since 1992, and it wears a lot of hats gracefully: a rotating gallery of regional work, a makerspace and workshop hub, a gift shop stocked with genuinely covetable local fine art, and a full slate of classes and camps for every age and skill level. It’s welcoming in the way community art centers are at their best — come to browse an exhibit, pick up a one-of-a-kind gift, or actually sign up to make something (a great, low-pressure date or girls’-day plan). Open five days a week, it’s an easy, air-conditioned counterpoint to a day on the water. On our list as the artful heart of downtown Milford — proof the village takes its makers as seriously as its scenery.