Fairfield County's Community Foundation supports Bridgeport Arts

Westport CT

30 November, 2020

9:20 AM

Description

Fairfield County's Community Foundation has been a constant support to City Lights, a small but resilient Bridgeport nonprofit whose mission is to serve the community through art. Among the initiatives of City Lights & Company is the Bridgeport Art Trail. This program is a city-wide arts celebration designed to shine a light on the creative potential of Bridgeport and its arts community and produces free enrichment programs for youth. Programs and promotion provide critically needed work for artists and creatives of the gig-economy. Due to the shutdown, their flow of available work for artists has dried up. Also, due to Covid19, City Lights was not able to host its annual anniversary fundraiser. This year, a generous $10,000 grant from FCCF enabled City Lights staff to sustain the momentum to produce the annual Bridgeport art event, by coordinating a 10-day hybrid online/onsite arts celebration, establishing an online archive of Bridgeport arts, featuring collaboration with artists of all ages and backgrounds, offering diverse and relevant presentations that broaden horizons, provoke thought and offer an artistic respite during these socially distant days. www.bridgeport-art-trail.org Funds for the Bridgeport Art Trail were provided through a donor advised fund. Donor Advised Funds at Fairfield County's Community Foundation are a great way for local donors to manage their philanthropic endeavors. By supporting Fairfield County's Community Foundation, you are supporting Greater Bridgeport. FCCF has the pulse of the needs of the community and matches individual donors with appropriate fields of interests, connecting worthy causes to the generous resources they need, especially during these difficult times. FCCF also continues to offer guidance to organizations and individuals through via its Center for Nonprofit Excellence – much-needed guidance to nonprofit organizations and board members through virtual workshops, and newsletters. Learn more about FCCF at www.fccfoundation.org This continues to be critical support to sustain and grow City Lights as an organization and to improve programs. We Can Make It! That is the attitude of the creative community. Together the Bridgeport Art Trail team created 200 online and onsite offerings showcasing, virtual performances, interviews, demos and workshops, including creative writing and storytelling that celebrate and convene artists and arts enthusiasts of diverse backgrounds to share in a cultural exchange. Program grants from FCCF continue to support arts integration and enrichment programs for Bridgeport students. Here are some links to Bridgeport Art Trail programs. Enjoy! For more go to https://bridgeport-art-trail.org/ Here are sample videos of the City Lights/Bridgeport Art Trail programs. Corona Times https://youtu.be/JNpyfjFQN-A features the thoughts and feelings of students of Thomas Hooker school, Bridgeport CT contending with the challenges of the Covid19. As the father of 5 children, teaching artists/poet/performer/visual artist, Iyaba Ibo Mandingo knew the youth need a creative outlet for the stressors they are confronting during "these Corona Times". Fuzz Sangiovanni collaborated with the students as he guided them through the process of songwriting. The students practiced their parts, and their voices were recorded for the audio and video production created by Fuzz. Visuals were contributed from the Bridgeport Art Trail community. The image "We Will Make It" was created by Dan Makara and portrait photography by Dariusz Kanarek. The music video debuted for the 2020 Bridgeport Art Trail. We Are Artists https://youtu.be/vSMBwGrCN34 Inspirational and fortifying words and images were written and read by Rev. Ina Anderson, music was composed performed and video produced by Fuzz Sangiovanni, with contributing art from Bridgeport Art Trail artists. C' mon and Dance https://youtu.be/XfdtfdVBESw music video of songwriting workshop with Bridgeport's Beardsley school students. Teaching artists Rick Reyes and Fuzz Sangiovanni led the classes, produced the final audio and video.