All a Buzz
What”™s the buzz? This week it”™s all about FCBuzz.
It”™s a new, weekly arts section that Westfair Business Publications hopes will complement its Fairfield County Business Journal the way the piquant HV Arts spices HV Biz, Westfair”™s Hudson Valley newspaper.
“Sometimes business people do not realize the tremendous impact the arts have on the economic vitality of local communities,” said Westfair Publisher Dee DelBello. “That”™s why we view this collaboration with the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County and its website, FCBuzz.org, as a weekly opportunity to introduce ”“ albeit in sampling form ”“ the wonderful, vibrant, diverse artists and groups that contribute so much to Fairfield County”™s commerce and quality of life.”
For her part, Ryan Odinak, the Cultural Alliance”™s executive director, calls the new FCBuzz “a true partnership that benefits the paper and benefits us. It”™s important for us in the arts to be in front of the business community.”
Many of the regular features of the new FCBuzz, then, will plumb the symbiotic relationship between business and the arts, Odinak said. Among them are “The Artist Within,” which will spotlight business people with a secret artistic talent, and “Standing Ovation,” saluting businesses that support the arts.
Each week the last page of the four-page section will focus on listings culled from FCBuzz.org. But there will also be special features on outstanding events like the Namaskaar Foundation”™s World on Stage production of “Merchant of Bollywood” at the Palace Theatre in Stamford Nov. 18. The extravaganza blends thousands of colorful costumes and glittering jewels with the music and choreography of some of India”™s biggest movie musicals ”“ known collectively as “Bollywood” ”“ to tell the story of a young woman”™s quest for self-determination amid the familial strictures of Indian society.
Odinak sees such stories as a resource for business people looking not only for things to do with their own families but for ways to attract potential employees to the area.
The seeds for the new FCBuzz were sown earlier this year when Caryn McBride, executive editor of the Fairfield County Business Journal, issued a call to cultural organizations to discuss the new arts section the newspaper was starting up. Among those that responded was the Cultural Alliance, an advocacy and advisory organization for some 70 nonprofits in the 23 municipalities that make up Fairfield County.
The Cultural Alliance is no stranger to collaborations. The Peer Advisor Network, which mentors nonprofits, is a partnership with the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism. The Alliance also has a similar program for individual artists called the Artist Mentorship Project.
Currently, only the member organizations can contribute information to the Alliance”™s Website, FCBuzz.org. But Odinak said she plans on adding individual artists, creative businesses like galleries, restaurants and hotels:
“We want to promote the sense that we”™re all in this together.”
Read Georgette Gouveia”™s cultural musings at theartsmuse.blogspot.com.