‘Arts Over Norwalk’ celebrates city’s cultural district

NORWALK, Conn. — Norwalk ranks sixth on the list of the state’s cities by population, but it has the largest arts and cultural district in Connecticut, the chairman of the city’s Arts and Culture Commission noted at a celebration Wednesday atop SoNo 50.

“It goes all the way from the bottom of Wilson Avenue to the top of Wall Street, and that is a glass way half full,” said Marc Alan, who works at the Factory Underground music studio on Isaacs Street. “It’s a big arts district, but we have so much going on here in the city of Norwalk under that umbrella of arts and culture.”

Wednesday’s event, titled “Arts Over Norwalk,” drew more than 50 artists, officials, and others to the rooftop of 50 Washington St., where Alan quoted attendee and local artist Rene Soto as saying, “Let’s think of Norwalk as a blank canvas, and let’s paint on it the city that we all want to live in.”

“And when I look around, I know that we have a lot of painters here tonight,” Alan said. “The story of the Arts and Culture District is writing itself in real time, and it’s all about you.”

The state designated an official Arts and Cultural District encompassing Norwalk’s Wall Street and South Norwalk neighborhoods in 2024. A map of the district on display Wednesday, with a “Waypointe Area” between the Wall Street and South Norwalk areas, highlighted nearly 30 attractions and the locations of more than 20 pieces of public art.

Mayor Barbara Smyth thanked Alan for being a “cornerstone” of the city’s arts scene and said the official designation of the arts district allows the city to pursue more funding to support cultural offerings. She cited a recent $600,000 grant to “re-connect” communities split by highways as an example.

“I think that’s going to be really important for our arts and cultural district to be able to connect the Wall Street area and what’s going on there with South Norwalk and everything in between to really create something special,” Smyth said, thanking staffers for their work to support the district. “It’s the fun things that Norwalk has to offer that make us a groovy city.”

Ashley Chinwe, a digital creator behind “Sundays with Ash,” which highlights local businesses and things to do, said she grew up in Stamford and moved to Norwalk after college before realizing all the city had to offer culturally.

“I think there’s a lot more programming, resourcing, and creativity coming to Norwalk that hasn’t been here before,” she said. “I’ve been calling it the Brooklyn to Stamford. I think it’s a little hipper, a little quirkier.”

Janay Sylvester, an artist and member of the Arts and Culture Commission, agreed. She said she moved back to the city as it emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic and “it was the perfect time to want to get involved because I think there were so many different restaurants and live performance spaces and people who just wanted to be involved and create this renaissance, if you will, of music and culture.”

Sam Newsum, founding member and president of the Norwalk Gamer Symphony Orchestra, a 70-member organization devoted to playing video game music, said the area’s location and vibrant economy help nurture the arts.

“I came here for software about 12 years ago, and a bunch of other young people were also coming here from universities all across the country,” he said. “And so we kind of looked at each other and said, ‘What can we do together artistically? How can we make art together in this new place that we find ourselves living?’”

Douglas Laustsen, executive director of the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County, said the arts district designation helps municipalities showcase offerings residents might not otherwise be familiar with.

“The cultural district program in the state of Connecticut is important because it allows towns to put a spotlight on all of the creative assets that are already existing in their communities,” he said. “A lot of towns, including Norwalk, have incredible opportunities for people to get out of the house, and cultural districts provide a vehicle for helping the towns to reach people.”