Public invited to learn about proposed Newtown Cultural District

 The Newtown Office of Economic and Community Development (ECD), in partnership with the Newtown Arts Commission, and the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers is inviting Newtown residents to attend a public information session at 6 pm on Thursday, August 21 in the Alexandria Room at Edmond Town Hall.

The purpose of the session is to present and discuss details, and answer any resident’s questions as Newtown and the Borough of Newtown proceed through the fulfillment of application requirements to establish a state designated Cultural District. 

Newtown is being supported through this application process by the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut and its Director Lisa Scails. Designation of such districts comes through the state Dept. of Economic & Community Development’s Office of the Arts.

By definition, a Connecticut Cultural District is a specific area of a city or town identified by the municipality that has a number of cultural facilities, activities and/or assets – both for profit and nonprofit. It is a walkable, compact area that is easy for visitors to recognize. The local District, if established, would be a center of cultural activities — artistic and economic — and a place where community members congregate, and visitors may enjoy those places that make Newtown special. 

A volunteer committee along with Scails has determined an area overlapping the Borough and the Town of Newtown is eligible for the designation. Committee members including Cultural Arts Commission Chair Laura Lerman, ETH Board of Mangers members Jennifer Guman and Betsy Paynter, and Newtown ECD Director John Voket have invited a number of other arts and culture supporters to be part of a required advisory council.

Those other participants include Sandra Rasmussen, owner of Sentimenti; former educator, photographer and artist Bill Glass; Rhonda Cullens, Flagpole Photographers Exhibit Chair; MAP Agency Creative Director John Rudolph; and EverWonder Children’s Museum Director Merredith Christos.

According to organizers, establishing a Cultural District will serve as both a community building initiative and an economic driver, and would pose no expense to taxpayers. The proposed Cultural District would encompass areas along Main Street in the Borough southward to Mile Hill Road, and northward to the Fairfield Hills campus.

Residents interested in learning more are encouraged to attend the information session at 6 pm on Thursday, August 21 — no registration is required and light refreshments will be served.