Does your candidates have an arts and culture platform?
If arts and culture are part of the community you want to build, they belong in the questions you ask candidates for public office. Elections give us an opportunity to learn not only who is running, but what candidates believe government can and should do for the communities they hope to represent. For the arts and culture sector, that can mean looking beyond whether a candidate has an arts policy written on their website. It can mean asking how they think about arts education, libraries, museums, historic preservation, public spaces, cultural organizations, creative businesses, tourism, economic development, and public investment.
It can also mean looking at what candidates have already done. A candidate’s record, public statements, voting history, community involvement, proposed policies, and answers to questions can all provide pieces of the picture. No single source tells the whole story, so we encourage voters to consult several.
Start With Your Own Ballot
The first step is finding out exactly which candidates are asking for your vote. Your ballot depends on where you live. Fairfield County’s 15 towns are represented by different combinations of municipal, Connecticut General Assembly, and federal districts, so two neighbors may not have exactly the same races on their ballots.
VOTE411, a nonpartisan voter information service provided by the League of Women Voters Education Fund, allows you to enter your address and see the races and candidates on your ballot. It also provides candidate information, candidate questionnaires when available, voting information, and upcoming debates and forums. Candidate responses are provided by the candidates themselves and are not edited by the League; the League does not support or oppose candidates or political parties.
Start here: Find your personalized ballot and candidate information at VOTE411.org. You can also consult the Connecticut Secretary of the State’s official candidate lists and sample ballots. The Secretary of the State publishes sample ballots by town and provides official candidate information and ballot-access information.
Look Beyond the Campaign Website
Campaign websites are useful, but they are only one source. As you learn about candidates, look for:
What they say:
What issues do they identify as priorities? Do they discuss education, economic development, public spaces, tourism, community development, libraries, historic preservation, or the creative economy?
What they have done:
For candidates who currently hold or have previously held public office, look at their legislative record, budgets they supported, funding they requested, programs they established, and community projects they helped advance.
What they propose:
Do they have specific plans for public investment, education, economic development, infrastructure, or community programs that affect the cultural sector?
What they hear from you:
Candidates and elected officials need to hear directly from the people they represent. A thoughtful email, phone call, meeting, or question at a public forum can make arts and culture part of the conversation.
Ask About the Arts
You don’t need to be an arts policy expert to ask a good question. Try asking:
- What role do you believe arts and culture play in the strength of our communities?
- How would you support arts education and creative opportunities for young people?
- What role should public investment play in sustaining arts and cultural organizations?
- How would you support the creative businesses, artists, and cultural organizations that contribute to our local economy?
- How do you see arts and culture contributing to downtown revitalization, tourism, and economic development?
- What would you do to make cultural experiences and creative opportunities accessible to more residents?
- How would you work with local arts organizations and cultural leaders when making decisions that affect our communities?
And don’t limit the conversation to candidates running for an office traditionally associated with the arts. A town budget, school budget, economic development plan, transportation project, zoning decision, public-space investment, or state funding decision can all affect whether arts and culture have room to thrive.
Fairfield County: Follow the Local Conversation
The League of Women Voters’ local organizations throughout Fairfield County provide another valuable way to learn about candidates and participate in civic conversations. For example, the League of Women Voters of Greenwich maintains candidate information, voter guides, debates, and forums, and has announced plans for 2026 general-election candidate debates and a Connecticut 4th Congressional District debate at the Westport Library.
The League of Women Voters of Westport describes its local work as including voter registration, voter guides, candidate forums and debates, and policy education.
Look for similar opportunities through the League chapter, library, local newspaper, public-access television station, civic organization, or community institution serving your town. A candidate forum can give you something a campaign website cannot: the opportunity to hear candidates answer the same question and then ask your own.
What Can We Learn About Candidates and the Arts?
There is no single current 2026 arts questionnaire covering every candidate in Fairfield County. There are, however, documented examples of candidates and public officials engaging with arts and cultural issues that voters can investigate further.
For example, Congressman Jim Himes, who represents Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District, announced $125,000 in National Endowment for the Arts grants for nine Fairfield County recipients in 2023, including Greater Connecticut Youth Orchestras in Fairfield, Creative Connections in Norwalk, ACT of Connecticut and Thrown Stone Theatre Company in Ridgefield, INTEMPO and Orchestra Lumos, and projects in Stamford. His office described the funding as supporting arts and culture in Southwest Connecticut.
In 2026, his office also requested and secured $480,000 in federal Community Project Funding for the Stamford Museum & Nature Center’s Planetarium and Astronomy Center, including public educational programming, exhibits, and observational tools. His office continues to operate a Congressional Art Competition for high school students in the district.
For other candidates, including candidates for the Connecticut General Assembly and municipal offices, information may be more limited or scattered across campaign websites, questionnaires, news coverage, public meeting records, and legislative records. If you can’t find an answer about the arts, ask.
That approach is worth carrying into every election: if arts and culture matter to you, candidates should hear from you.
Don’t Just Research. Start a Conversation.
Civic participation doesn’t end with learning about the candidates. The next step is letting them know what matters to you.
Tell candidates about the cultural organization you volunteer with. Tell them about the museum your children visit, the theater that brings people downtown, the library program that connects your neighbors, the artist whose work changed how you see your community, or the creative business that contributes to your local economy.
You don’t have to agree with a candidate on every issue to ask about the future of arts and culture. You don’t have to speak for the entire arts sector. You simply have to make your own priorities known.
Public leaders make decisions about budgets, policies, education, infrastructure, economic development, public spaces, and community investment. Arts and culture are affected by those decisions. Make sure the people seeking your vote understand that.
A Few Places to Start
VOTE411
Personalized ballot, candidate information, questionnaires, debates, and voting resources from the League of Women Voters Education Fund.
Connecticut Secretary of the State
Official candidate lists, sample ballots, election information, and voter resources.
WSHU Radio
Non-partisan, online resource guide for the midterm elections. It provides information about major races, answers voting questions, contains a curated selection of informative videos, and much more.
CT Mirror
Nonprofit, nonpartisan Connecticut journalism with election guides, candidate coverage, debates, and policy reporting.
