A merger of the Charles Ives Authority and the Danbury Cultural Commission has been proposed.

The Cultural Commission in Danbury has been run for many years by a group of volunteers.  Mayor Mark Boughton says they've used their budget to seed both performing and visual arts throughout the city.  The Charles Ives Authority, created in partnership with Western Connecticut State University, has been promoting performing arts at the Ives Concert Park since 2007 as a way to strengthen the town-grown relationship between Danbury and the university.

The job of the Charles Ives Cultural Authority would be to promote arts and entertainment throughout the city, seed new cultural projects, manage the Ives Concert Park as well as engage the students at Westconn and the new performing arts center at Westconn’s campus in the teaching, appreciation, and promotion of the arts in Danbury. 

In an effort to link the Downtown Green with the Ives Concert Park, the new Authority is being called on to host four ticketed events at the Green during the next several summers.  Boughton says that will require an investment and work by the Public Works Department so the Green can accommodate the number of people those events will attract. 

He says bringing new people to the downtown during the summer months is another way to enhance the economic vitality of the area.