On Thursday, August 21, Economic and Community Development Director John Voket hosted a meeting in collaboration with the Newtown Cultural District Committee. The purpose of the meeting was to inform the public about the Cultural District application Newtown is currently in the process of, one of the requirements being that public info session.

Voket began the meeting by recognizing the hard work committee members have done to put the application together so far. In addition to Voket, the committee includes Merredith Christos, Rhonda Cullens, Bill Glass, Jen Guman, Laura Lerman, Betsy Paynter, Sandra Rasmussen, and John Rudolph.

“I really feel privileged to work with the committee that’s rapidly putting together this application for Newtown’s Cultural District, and I wanna just recognize the hard work that’s been done,” Voket said. “I have seen very few [committees] … that have worked as quickly and efficiently and thoroughly as this group … because the outcome of this application is going to be putting Newtown on a whole different map.”

Voket mentioned Newtown is welcoming folks from neighboring towns, across the state, around the country, and around the world. Tourism is picking up for the nutmeg state, and implementing the Cultural District is another way to ensure tourism traffic picks up, he said.

According to the Connecticut Office of the Arts and CT Economic Development, a Cultural District is a specific, walkable area of town that has several cultural facilities, activities, and assets. The definition goes on to further state such an area is a “center of cultural activities” and is a place where “community members congregate and visitors may enjoy those places that make a community special,” of which Newtown has plenty. Cultural Districts market arts and culture attractions, promote and encourage artists, improve residents’ quality of life, and provide many, many other opportunities.

“We wanna gain recognition of the creative arts and businesses already happening in town, and grow and encourage the arts while supporting and attracting creative industries and businesses because every time a new business opens, every time I get the call to say, ‘Hey, come and do a ribbon cutting,’ for me, it’s one more little step in offsetting the residential tax base with commercial taxes,” Voket explained to the crowd.

He included a list of requirements for the application in his presentation, which included creating the committee, gathering cultural and creative assets, determining the district map, and then hosting a public information session.

“Boom, just like that, we’re over the 50% mark and moving toward the finish line,” Voket said. The Town of Newtown and Borough of Newtown have both expressed support in the committee going after this application and establishing the Cultural District in town, he added. The ECD Director additionally said he hopes to submit the full application by the end of October, “so the designation may actually be awarded in 2025.”

The final step in the application process is having state officials visit and tour the district to see all Newtown has to offer.

Voket then shared the map of the proposed district. He mentioned that several ongoing activities fall within the definition of Cultural District, such as Flagpole Radio Café, Newtown Arts Festival, several Sandy Hook Organization for Prosperity events, and others.

The map begins at 77 Main Street, at Art & Frame owned by John O’Sullivan. It continues south along Main Street and includes Edmond Town Hall, Liberty and The Peace Monument, The Matthew Curtiss House, C.H. Booth Library, Ram Pasture, The Pleasance, and other locations. Heading east on Church Hill Road, the map includes historic sites such as the office of The Newtown Bee and The Hawley School; it also has other businesses, like Cave Comics and Reverie Brewing. The map continues into Sandy Hook Center, encompassing Herbs Love and Yoga, Artemis Architect, Graceful Planet School of Dance, and Map Agency.

The map additionally continues onto Queen Street and Mile Hill Road, bringing in the Fairfield Hills campus and EverWonder Children’s Museum.

It also includes other assets that do not fit into the designated “map” area, such as The Little Theatre and Sticks and Stones Farm. There are so many businesses and places to visit within the proposed Newtown Cultural District that they could not fit all of them into the 100+ slide presentation Voket shared with the crowd.

“You all know what makes Newtown special, and we’re ready to show it off to everyone,” Voket said.

After the extensive presentation, Voket opened the floor to questions. The first question was from Sandy Hook resident Arnie Berman, who asked if there are any “conceivable down sides.”

Voket answered that he does not think so as it will be no cost to the community except volunteer time and the “dividends can pay significantly once it’s established because we’ll be getting opportunities for elevated promotion and advertisement.”

In response to a question from another attendee concerning grant opportunities, Voket said there are grants exclusively for towns with Cultural Districts. Such a designation will help secure grants in the future, he said.

Another question concerned whether other areas of the town would be included due to their historic nature and the broader history of art.

“We have a wealth of celebrities in their fields who call Newtown home. It just adds to the assets that we have,” Voket said.

Another resident suggested including the locations on a paper map, but raised cost as a concern. Voket raised another concern, that “missing one would be the biggest sin. It might be a map so clustered with pin drops that you wouldn’t even be able to see that it’s Newtown anymore.”

The resident suggested online, and Voket agreed that an interactive, online map might be better suited for such a presentation.

Voket encouraged anyone to reach out with questions to his email, john.voket@newtown-ct.gov.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.