Redding Area Arts Supporters Gather to Celebrate Arts as 'Heart and Soul' of Community

The 8th Annual Business Supports the Arts was held Thursday at The Matrix Conference Center in Danbury. The event is presented by the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut (CAWC) as a way to recognize outstanding businesses and artists in the communities they serve.

“We believe arts are the heart and soul of the community,” Stamford resident and arts supporter Juanita T. James said. James accepted the 2014 Business Supports the Arts award on behalf of Fairfield County’s Community Foundation.

Since the first awards event in 2007, the CAWC’s organization and awards event attendees has grown tremendously.

The morning opened with a preview of Western Connecticut State University’s Department of theater Arts’ cast of Little Women.

Lisa Scails, Executive Director of CAWC, and Lew Wallace, President, welcomed guests and thanked supporters. The CAWC showed a video about the arts organization which was produced by RMedia, a Danbury-based production company.

Allison Stockel, Executive Director of the Ridgefield Playhouse, also shared opening remarks and noted how the arts help support local businesses by bringing in revenue to help merchants thrive.

City Center’s Andrea Gartner echoed her sentiments and spoke on living creatively while energizing the economy.

Dan Goble, Dean of WestConn’s School of Visual and Performing Arts and board member of the CAWC, shared a slideshow of WCSU’s newly dedicated Visual & Performing Arts Center which includes a concert hall and gallery space.

Board member Bob Keller of Brookfield’s Townsquare Media said the CAWC’s annual breakfast and awards is important because “it connects businesses to the arts and where there’s arts, there’s culture.”

Redding’s Georgetown School of the Arts studio owner Susan Jackson, board member, presented the three awards:

• Heart of Arts Award: Wayne Leiss, Executive Director of the Ridgefield Theater Barn
• Art in the Community Award: Michael Lauretano, owner of Pizzeria Lauretano’s in Bethel
• 2014 BSA Award: Fairfield County’s Community Foundation

“We come together to eat, drink and celebrate what it means to be human,” Michael Lauretano said in his award acceptance speech. Lauretano was nominated by CAWC’s board member, Alice Hutchinson, owner of Byrd’s Books. Lauretano has been hosting Sunday jazz at his pizzeria which draws local and national artists for more than four years.

The best quote of the morning came from Ridgefield Playhouse award recipient Wayne Leiss who said, “The earth without art is just ‘eh.’ ”

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, Bethel First Selectman Matthew Knickerbocker, and representatives from the newly-formed Bethel Arts organization were also in attendance to show their support.

Juanita T. James of Fairfield County’s Community Foundation closed by saying, “I wish you all beauty, arts and culture.”

To see a photo gallery of the event, click here.

Photo: Wayne Leiss, award recipient, with members of the Ridgefield Theater Barn.

Photo credit: Wendy Mitchell

To find out more about the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut, visit their website: artswesternct.org.

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