About Northwest Connecticut Arts Council

Northwest Connecticut Arts Council (NWCT Arts Council) is one of eight regional Arts Councils designated by the Connecticut Office of the Arts, a branch of the Department of Economic and Community Development. These regional entities, scattered across the state, partner with their local organizations and individual artists to help arts and cultural communities thrive. NWCT Arts Council operates in Litchfield County and its surrounding rural towns, going as south as New Milford and as east as Burlington.

NWCT Arts Council was founded by Amy Wynn in 2003 and began as a collaborative partnership, first working on a regional cultural assessment to better serve the 25-town region. The organization expanded its services as it grew to provide printed publications and resources, host events for the arts community, and funnel grant dollars to artists and small arts businesses.

The arts industry generates about $30 million annually in the greater Litchfield County region, with each dollar financing the arts resulting in seven-dollar return on investment. A 2022 economic and social impact study also revealed the arts sector supports over 800 full time jobs. Strong, growing economies are associated with improved mortality rates, increased access to medical care, and improved public health infrastructure. In addition to fueling economic development, studies have shown an active arts community contributes to public dialogue, supports and develops creative learning, and acts as a powerful tool for community mobilization and activism. Recognizing the economic vitality and strong community connectivity rooted in the arts, NWCT Arts Council is dedicated to elevating the arts as a community asset and resource.

Our Work with Northwest Connecticut Arts Council

We got to know NWCT Arts Council through FCH’s Capacity Building Grant Program, created in 2021, which has awarded $558,070 to twenty-two organizations to date in the Litchfield County and Greater Harlem Valley region. The grant program strives to increase the stability, effectiveness, and resilience of nonprofits through flexible funding. NWCT Arts Council received a $10,000 grant from this program and used this funding in 2023 to build and restructure the technology that facilitates their work.

The process took eight months to undertake and required allocated staff time to set up process automations through new software and to pay for the service itself. The system, Zapier, allowed NWCT Arts Council to streamline core operations like donor and member management, calendar and event updates, bookkeeping, donor acknowledgements, and more administrative and time-consuming tasks. For example, when an artist signed up for a membership, NWCT Arts Council staff previously had to manually enter the artist’s information with their software that collects dues, sign up the artist to their email blasts, and input any necessary information about the artist to their website. Now, through their use of Zapier, these steps are automated and require significantly less handling from staff.

In a recent visit to NWCT Arts Council, the Executive Director, Steph Burr, showed FCH staff how they creatively integrated Zapier into the other systems already in place. Steph estimated that the organization saves around 30 hours a week from administrative tasks, enabling the organization to put more time and effort towards cultivating relationships, furthering communication efforts, and other program work.

Looking to the future, Steph is working to create a comprehensive development plan to sustain operations and programs. She also hopes to continue making progress on the organization’s goal to become a regional arts hub, connecting with as many artists and organizations as possible and using NWCT Arts Council’s resources to steward shared information among the arts community.