The Connecticut Arts Hero Awards honor and celebrate CT residents doing inspiring things in, for, or through the arts in Connecticut. Our region’s Arts Hero for 2022 is William Geddes of Woodbury. Bill was honored, along with eight other Arts Heroes from across the state at the Connecticut Arts Hero Awards on January 18 at 6 pm at Infinity Hall in Hartford. The event honored and celebrated these inspiring individuals to reaffirm the significant role the arts play in Connecticut.
Bill has spent his life inspiring others through his passion for the arts. His years as a high school music teacher were inspirational to his students, yet they were just a prelude to a new and unpaid “career” that has impacted every segment of the community. Bill is the founder and current president of the Woodbury-Bethlehem Community Music Foundation, which provides financial support for music education initiatives. As founding director of the Arts Alliance of Woodbury, Bill created the Woodbury Arts Festival, Arts Meet & Greets and Arts Walks. At the height of the pandemic, when public performances of all kinds were shuttered, Bill donned a kilt and carried his Highland Bagpipes to the end of his driveway where he played daily at sunset, lifting the spirits of neighbors and others who came to listen from their cars.
Nominations for CT Arts Heroes were made across the state, including our greater Waterbury region. Since 2016, the Connecticut Arts Hero Awards have introduced us to an array of remarkable individuals engaged in or supporting the arts – some publicly and some behind the scenes.
The nominations were evaluated by a local panel of reviewers, who selected Bill Geddes as the Connecticut Arts Hero from our region for 2022. Arts Heroes named in our region in recent years include: Shelby Davis of City Youth Theatre (2021); Semina DeLaurentis, artistic director of Seven Angels Theatre (2020); young artist and author Chase Taylor (2019); Calida Jones, violinist and arts consultant (2018); and Lynnette Letsky Piombo (2017), long-time volunteer in the Waterbury arts community.