Ridgefield's New Arts Council Chair Aims To Continue Fostering Creative Collaboration

RIDGEFIELD, CT — The Ridgefield Arts Council has a new chairperson, who said she will continue the "good work" done by the outgoing chair and council at large in promoting the town's thriving art community.

Jennifer Rose DiLaura, who has been on the Arts Council for nine and a half years and chair for two, recently passed the torch of leadership to Colleen Cash. DiLaura announced she would step away from the council earlier this year.

"I think it's good for organizations to have that shake-up," DiLaura said, adding she has "all the confidence in the world" Cash can "take Ridgefield to the next level" as an arts destination.

"(This is) an opportunity to continue the good work that Jennifer has stewarded for so long and the council has been involved with for so long," Cash said.

In a conversation with Patch, DiLaura and Cash highlighted the number of organizations and people that have made Ridgefield a well-known hub for the arts, and expressed their enthusiasm for the community.

"We have this incredibly diverse group of nonprofits and then we have a huge number of residents who are in the arts," DiLaura said. We have musicians, actors, writers, and anything you can imagine. . . . We get these people living here wanting to give back, wanting to teach the younger generation. It's awesome."

In May 2021, Connecticut's Office of the Arts established the state's first Cultural District in Ridgefield. The town has a number of historic venues, including Keeler Tavern and Museum, Lounsbury House, and the Aldritch Museum.

More than 20 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations are involved with the Arts Council, which puts on or sponsors a number of programs throughout the year. These programs include Make Music Day; Our Artists, Our Schools; and a quarterly networking event with local artists. Information on winter arts events in Ridgefield can be found here.

DiLaura and Cash both said collaboration between the town's art organizations in the past few years has been crucial, from a planning perspective and also to promote the organizations.

"That has exploded in the past few years. We've really seen an increase in these fantastic collaborations," DiLaura said. "Especially for COVID, it's really helped various organizations."

DiLaura said marketing the events has also been key to increasing the reach of the arts and culture organizations.

"We started about five or six years ago, marketing the town's art offerings, and that has grown and continued to grow," she said.

Cash, who moved to Ridgefield from New York City this year, works professionally in art auctions. Cash said she sees more opportunities for the town's economic development through further promotion of the arts scene.

"The synergy that exists within Ridgefield's confines is extraordinary," she said. "If you have a town with all of these organizations that people come to to soak up culture, they need to eat on either side of that and they need to walk around...that's a future opportunity for the work of the arts council."

Cash also said she hopes to get more organizations and people involved in the council.

"We are really looking to have the most representative group of people who can help us really flesh out the deep richness of the arts that Ridgefield has to offer," she said.