State arts officials outline how cultural districts and AIR collaborative can boost downtowns in Northwest Corner

Liz Shapiro, director at the Connecticut Office of the Arts, and a Connecticut Main Street representative urged Northwest Corner municipal leaders to consider cultural-district designation and the state’s AIR collaborative as tools to invigorate downtowns.

Shapiro said the arts are an economic force and a civic asset. "The arts and culture sector in Connecticut was a $10,100,000,000 industry," she said, citing data sources including Americans for the Arts and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. She also cited state survey findings that roughly 91% of Connecticut residents participated in cultural activities during the pandemic and said the Connecticut Cultural Fund supported more than 730 arts and cultural nonprofits in fiscal year 2022–23.

The state program: cultural districts and the application process

Shapiro described Connecticut’s cultural-district program, which she said was established by statute in 2019 and launched administratively on Jan. 1, 2020. She said the designation requires a publicly defined, mappable area and an inventory of cultural assets—public art,…