A very familiar name will be among those called on April 2 when CT Arts Awards celebrates its Connecticut Arts Heroes Class of 2024.

Newtown Cultural Arts Commission Chair (NCAC) and Newtown Choral Society President Laura Lerman has been announced as one of nine people who are “doing inspiring things in, for or through the arts in Connecticut,” according to CT Arts Awards. A program of the Connecticut Office of the Arts, the awards introduce individuals engaged in or supporting the arts, some publicly and some behind the scenes.

The 2025 Connecticut Arts Awards will be presented Wednesday, April 2, at 6 pm, at Infinity Music Hall in Hartford. The public is invited, free of charge. Visit connecticutartsawards2025.splashthat.com to register.

Nancy Dvorin, who nominated Lerman for the honor, called her friend “tireless,” “a constant presence,” and “so supportive of everything the artists are doing.”

Lerman has long played a pivotal role in fostering the arts in Newtown. A former teacher and reporter, she now spends countless hours volunteering to further the arts in this town.

“There’s no one more deserving,” according to Dvorin. “The work she does is so important. We all need to pay a little more attention to how she enriches all of our lives through the work — all volunteer work — that she does.”

Lerman was an early member of NCAC following its creation through Town ordinance in January 2006. She was elected its second Chair in February 2014, a role she continues to hold. The purpose of the commission, she said March 4, is two-fold.

“One is to make the arts available to as many people as possible, and the second is to support the people who create the arts,” she said. One concept of the cultural arts commission, she added, is to pay the bands that play for its events.

“We never ask a band to play for exposure,” she explained. “If a band is playing for us, they’re getting paid. It’s too easy for people in the arts to say, ‘This is a good cause, why don’t you do it for us to get exposure and that’s the only thing you’re getting.’”

Lerman has been president of the choral society “probably for decades,” she said this week.

Newtown Choral Society is a nonauditioned choir that welcomes all voices and performs two concerts each year. The choir has been led since 1998 by Director Mary Andreotta, and joined by an accompanist — Phil Crevier, since August 2024 — for its concerts.

Additional musicians have joined the performances in recent years. A chamber orchestra accompanied NCS for its holiday concert in December 2024. Lerman notes the director and accompanists are all paid for their talent and time.

Lerman is also a co-chair of Newtown Arts Festival and is the manager/curator of NCAC’s Municipal Art Gallery.

She has been deeply involved with the arts festival since the launch of that annual event in 2012. The weekend event averages 5,000 visitors, she said.

“You pay $5 to get in and you can have hours of exposure to so many things, so many presentations and performances and offerings,” she said. “You can experience the arts all day long without further fees, if you want to.

“We also have 80 artisans there, that we support,” she added.

With The Municipal Center Art Gallery, Lerman welcomes artists from the region. They are not limited by residency, and she is very open to all forms of art.

“You don’t have to live in Newtown and if you tell me it’s art, it’s art,” she said.

Lerman schedules artists for the full wall space within 3 Primrose Street along with a showcase within the gallery space.

“We are delighted to do this, and we provide press releases and if an artist wants one, we schedule a reception. We are a full service gallery,” she said.

NCAC does not charge a commission, further supporting the artists who share their work in the gallery space.

“If you sell something, that’s between you and the buyer,” she said. “We are all about supporting the artists.”

‘A Constant Presence’

Despite the honor from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, Lerman does not see herself as a hero, she said this week.

“I stepped into all this work incrementally,” she said Tuesday morning. Years ago, she said, “I saw something that needed to be done and I figured I could do it.”

Lerman sees volunteers, she said this week, “as the backbone of the arts community. I am for anything we can do to reward volunteers and acknowledge their contributions.

“Volunteers tend to know other volunteers,” she said. “You know what they say: 10% of the people get 95% of everything done.”

With Newtown Choral Society, of which she is also a performing member, Lerman sings “with the President of the Friends of the Library and I sing with the organizer of the Friends’ book sale,” she said, laughing.

Lerman was nominated for the Arts Heroes honor by Friends of C.H. Booth Library President Nancy Dvorin. The two have become friends after years of volunteering for multiple, often overlapping, entities.

Dvorin said this week she has known Lerman for about 13 years.

“For as long as I’ve known her, I’ve been so impressed by her tireless advocacy for the arts in Newtown,” she said March 4. “She does so much, and this award is for the people who promise and support the arts in their community, and in Newtown that’s Laura.

“For decades, she’s been doing so much behind the scenes. She deserves this statewide recognition,” Dvorin added. “She’s really put Newtown on the map, artwise.”

Lerman’s support of the art, Dvorin said, goes well beyond organizing events.

“She goes to every concert available in the area — Newtown and also Brookfield, Danbury, and Monroe. She’s such a patron of the arts,” Dvorin said. “Who better than Laura to get this recognition. When you find someone who will work this hard to integrate art into the lives of Newtowners, that’s noteworthy.

“I want people to know what she has done for this community, and neighboring communities,” she added. “She’s a constant presence.”

CT Arts Awards Class Of 2024

The CT Arts Awards Class of 2024 also includes Laura Attanasio of Clinton, a lifelong advocate for inclusivity in the arts who had dedicated over 35 years to creating enriching opportunity in arts education; Joey Batts of Hartford, a multifaceted man celebrated for his contributions as a high school English teacher, musician, and community organizer; Alicia C. Cobb of Bridgeport, an award-winning visual artist, body painter, and teaching artist; and Rafael Feliciano-Roman of Waterbury, founder of The Afro Caribbean Cultural Center.

Also, Renée Jaworski of Litchfield, who has been a driving force in dance at Pilobolus since 2000, captivating audiences as a performer and shaping the company’s artistic and educational evolution and now serving as executive/co-artistic director; Joe Malinowski of Willimantic, who has dedicated nearly four decades to presenting arts and music and has, for the past 12 years, owned and operated Willimantic Records; Casey Moran of New London, an artist, writer, and director of the nonprofit Makerspace in New London; and Juanita Sunday of New Haven, a curator and cultural producer with a passion for Afrofuturism.

The April 2 event will also honor four Emerging Creatives, or individuals who are starting to blossom as impactful and innovative contributors to the Connecticut arts scene. This year’s Emerging Creatives are Molly Gambardella of New London, Saranda Kalaveshi of Avon, Constance Kristofik of New London, and Ash Royer of Thomaston.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.