2022 ACE Awardees Announced

The Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County announces the winners of its Sixth Annual Daniel E. Offutt III Arts & Culture Empowerment (ACE) Awards. A celebratory awards breakfast will be held at the Shore and Country Club, Norwalk, June 15, 2022, 7:30-9am. Tickets are now available at bit.ly/cafcACE22.

The purpose of the ACE awards is to celebrate the passion for, and impact of, arts and culture across coastal Fairfield County, and to raise awareness of the quality and diversity of our region's arts and cultural offerings. This year we will focus on how artists, arts educators, cultural nonprofits, philanthropists and companies have worked within communities to strengthen their resiliency and keep hope alive during the pandemic.

The keynote speaker will be David Lehman, Commissioner for Connecticut's Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD). Also speaking will be Elizabeth Shapiro, Director of Arts, Preservation and Museums (DECD), and Jason Mancini, Executive Director, CT Humanities. All three speakers collaborated in an unprecedented manner over the last two years of the pandemic to discover and fulfill the financial needs of cultural organizations devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and its social, mental health, and economic ramifications. See bios below.

The ACE Awards were renamed the Daniel E. Offutt III Arts & Culture Empowerment (ACE) Awards in 2021 after a significant contribution from the Daniel E. Offutt III Private Foundation Trust.