News & Information for Arts & Cultural Organizations & Creative Businesses in Fairfield County
June 2024
Pride Month is a vibrant celebration of love, diversity, and the unyielding spirit of the LGBTQ+ community. Each June, honor is given to the trailblazers who fought for equality, recognizing the progress that has been made for people to live and love freely. This month is a powerful reminder of the importance of acceptance, inclusion, and the beauty of being true to oneself. As we wave our rainbow flags high, let us embrace the rich tapestry of identities that make up our world, fostering a future where everyone can live openly and authentically. Here's to love, pride, and the continued journey towards equality for all.
Erika K. Wesley
Executive Director, CAFC
CAFC NEWS
The Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County seeks a creative, relationship-driven professional who shares our values of strengthening the community through arts and culture, widening arts access, and cultivating the community by fostering well-being across coastal Fairfield County.
We seek a Membership Manager to support our growing program and organizational needs. The membership manager will oversee all daily membership operations, including monitoring membership accounts, ensuring timely responses to member inquiries, and executing recruitment and retention campaigns.
We are thrilled to announce our new FC Buzz Event Listing through the CivicLift Calendar Platform, marking s a shift towards a more vibrant and beneficial system for event management! It's the most comprehensive arts and culture event listing around with over one hundred fantastic offerings in Fairfield County that shines a spotlight on you, our members, all the wonderfully creative individuals, organizations and businesses who provide us with an abundance of interesting opportunities to feed our souls. We firmly believe that this change will benefit event organizers and attendees alike. Find information on signing in and listing events you can see a tutorial HERE.
Join TCC’s 10th annual Pride in the Park, Fairfield County’s largest LGBTQ+ Pride festival! In 2023, Pride in the Park saw its largest gathering of LGBTQ+ people and allies, with more than 8,500 visitors from around the tri-state area. This year, Pride in the Park will offer more family-friendly activities, a variety of food and gift vendors, and both local and nationally acclaimed entertainers. Stay tuned for our array of show-stopping headliners, soon to be announced! Children and families can enjoy tailored programming, activities, and entertainment between 12pm-2pm before main performances begin. June 8, 12:00 pm - 8:00 pm VETERAN’S MEMORIAL PARK, NORWALK
Greater Bridgeport Pride presents Unity in the Park
at Wheeler Park Bridgeport. Filled with local vendors, food trucks, and fun games, Unity in the Park welcomes people from all walks of life to join us in a joyous Pride celebration. This event will also feature incredible performances by renowned drag artists, musicians, and variety performers. 3:00 pm - 7:00 pm
This year’s festival features an amazing collection of 70+ LGBTQ films!! All in-theater screenings will be held at Cinestudio, on the campus of Trinity College in Hartford, except for Closing Saturday, June 22, which will take place at the Connecticut Science Center. June 14 - June 22
Celebrating Queer and Trans Elders During Pride Month
This year, Hyperallergic honors art-world LGBTQ+ elders who inspire us and on whose shoulders the rest of us are standing. This year, our Pride Month series looks at those LGBTQ+ elders who inspire us and on whose shoulders the rest of us are standing.
Deserve What You Dream invites visitors to sit and rest while gazing at leisurely pool scenes of Black joy from Derrick Adams’ Floater painting series, abstract paintings of musings and intuitive thoughts by New Haven-based artist Jihyun Lee, and intricate abstract sculptures and latch-hooked rugs by Sarah Zapata throughout NXTHVN’s gallery and aula spaces; along with a vinyl window install of ‘Adventures of Joy Da Black Boi’ from New Haven-based artist Isaac Bloodworth. This selection of works provides a space of respite and rest for our viewers to experience the liberation of daydreaming. We encourage viewers to relax, daydream, and compose poetry with their bodies in our gallery while contemplating the following prompts: Why do you dream? How do you dream? What do you dream of? On view through September 1
Kick off the weekend with Aldrich After Hours and enjoy drinks and special programming in the Museum’s galleries. Associate Curator Eduardo Andres Alfonso will give a highlights tour of Elizabeth Englander’s exhibition, Eminem Buddhism, Volume 3 focusing on the inclusive nature of Buddhism in celebration of Pride month. Aldrich After Hours June 7 @ 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
City Lights Gallery will host the annual OUTworks Art Show, which explores issues of gender, LGBTQ life, love and relationships, family, social justice, bias, personal stories, and pride. June 22 12:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Westport Pride and Moca Westport present Chic & Cheeky and evening with Patty Bouree Friday, June 14, 7:00 PM 10:00 PM, Moca Westport. Patty Bourrée is a chic chanteuse and mouthy comedienne known regionally for her big voice, hilarious parodies, vintage style, and bad attitude. Veritably crushed under the weight of her theater degrees (a BFA from NYU and MFA from Emerson College), an evening with Patty Bourrée is sure to be jam-packed with song, antics, and surprises.Event includes meet and greet and cocktail hour!
CT Arts Alliance offers a big THANK YOU to members for their support for the arts during the 2024 legislative session! We made important progress with securing more meaningful, reliable, and equitable funding for the arts community. The introduction of the “meals tax” bill proposed an allocation of $50 million from the meals tax to the Tourism Fund.The community came out in force with written and public testimony to advocate for the goals of the Arts, Culture, and Tourism Funding Roadmap during two public hearings. We packed the legislature hearing room when Randy Cohen from Americans for the Arts came to talk with legislators about the economic impact of the arts. Arts advocates sharpened their skills through advocacy trainings we co-hosted with Gallo and Robinson and the Connecticut League of Museums. In just two years, we’ve raised the profile of arts funding as a priority for legislative action thanks to our statewide community of arts advocates. That’s the power of raising a united voice for the arts!
Kick off your two-week Festival experience with a performance that pays homage to the Juneteenth holiday and celebrates our collective dedication to liberation and joy! Curated by Artsucation and the Official Juneteenth Coalition of Greater New Haven, this evening promises to be a harmonious blend of rhythm, love, and artistry like no other. Join us for an evening with New Haven All-Stars featuring The Keepers of the Culture Performing Arts Company, Manny James and Soulclectic, and The Rahsaan Langley Project. The evening will be hosted by Bobby Ramos. Make sure to mark your calendar for a night that you won’t want to miss!
Did you know that, in addition to this monthly Organization Newsletter, we have a monthly Artist Newsletter and a weekly e-Buzz event listing? Subscribe to any or all of our publications and share a sample with a friend or peer. Please help us expand our reach by sharing and subscribing here:
The Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County is a nonprofit membership service organization that supports its members in many ways. When you become a member of CAFC, you are immediately plugging into a network and a host of services and benefits including marketing, capacity building, professional development, networking, and advocacy services. Our region includes Bridgeport, Darien, Easton, Fairfield, Greenwich, Monroe, New Canaan, Norwalk, Shelton, Stamford, Stratford, Trumbull, Weston, Westport, and Wilton.
The Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County is a 501(c)(3) cultural nonprofit membership organization. We are grateful to our members and our donors whose support enables us to do our work. In particular, we are grateful for support from:
