Fairfield University and Fairfield Theatre Company (FTC), located in downtown Fairfield, have announced a new partnership designed to strengthen Fairfield County’s cultural ecosystem, connect students and arts patrons in new ways, and create a foundation for imaginative collaborations across education, performance, and the arts.
Fairfield University will serve as FTC’s exclusive Arts and Education Partner, formalizing a relationship between the two organizations, which have a history dating back more than 25 years. In 2001, the fledgling FTC restaged and presented three off-Broadway productions for their first season, which the University hosted on campus at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.
The new partnership brings together FTC’s distinctive role as a nonprofit presenter and producer of live entertainment, theatre, film, and educational and cultural programming, with Fairfield University’s longstanding role as a hub for arts and culture in the region and its mission to cultivate the creative intellectual potential of students.
The arrangement is intended to build upon the University’s current robust arts and culture programming presented at the Quick Center and the Fairfield University Art Museum, and serve as a platform for future co-presentations, co-productions, educational opportunities, student involvement, and experiences that bring University communities and public audiences closer together.
For students, those possibilities could include expanded opportunities to engage with professional artists and arts organizations beyond campus; participation in the creation, presentation, and promotion of cultural programming in the community; and encounters with new models of arts leadership and nonprofit cultural production. For the public, the partnership promises greater access to a broader ecosystem of cultural experiences.
“This partnership is rooted in something Fairfield University has always believed: that education does not stop at the classroom door, and that the arts are among our most powerful ways of learning, imagining, questioning, connecting, and becoming more fully human,” said University Provost Christine Siegel, PhD. “We are thrilled to formalize our relationship with Fairfield Theatre Company in a way that creates new possibilities for our students, our faculty, our audiences, and our neighbors.”
