Launched five years ago to bring free art and music education to underserved children, The Norwalk Art Space or ‘TNAS’ includes a studio and exhibition floor and features not only instruction but also a top-notch café that’s popular among New Canaanites, and community and private events.
Located at 455 West Ave. (with free parking catty-corner), the Art Space has rapidly evolved into a draw and destination for fine and performing arts lovers and supporters throughout Fairfield County.
On Thursday evening, TNAS is hosting its annual Arts Bash fundraiser (details and tickets here).
We put some questions to the nonprofit organization’s executive director, Duvian Montoya, ahead of the Arts Bash.
Here’s our exchange.
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New Canaanite: Our readers are New Canaan residents. For those who don’t know what the Norwalk Art Space is, please give us a short history and overview.
Duvian Montoya
Duvian Montoya: The Norwalk Art Space opened in June 2021 thanks to our founder Alexandra Davern Korry who bought and restored this old church built in 1935. Her intention was to open an Art Space offering free studios to emerging artists, the majority being women. In return for the studios, these artists teach free art classes to underserved students in Norwalk and surrounding communities. Sadly she passed away before she saw her dream open to the public. Since her passing I have been working with Alexandra’s family to establish the space as an Arts Hub. Since opening we have expanded from just four classes serving 48 students that summer to 19 classes serving 192 students this past summer. We’ve expanded to include free music classes with our community partner Intempo and now run a free meal program for the neediest in our communities. We’ve also hosted over 60 exhibitions highlighting over 200 diverse Connecticut artists and trained 34 residents to be teachers—some now teach in the public schools. We have also welcomed over 19,000 visitors to our space for artist talks, community workshops, ballet, and spoken word and jazz performances. Our award-winning cafe, managed by Bill Taibe and his team is also a great feature of the Art Space for connecting with friends over great food, drink and art.
Since launching five years ago, what sort of involvement or support have you seen from New Canaanites?
New Canaanites attend our exhibitions frequently, especially those featuring New Canaan artists like Constance Old and Francie Ashford. We have also had multiple volunteers from New Canaan who serve as docents for the galleries or help in the classroom. New Canaanites also make up a part of our team, including our marketing lead Julie Hoffman and members of the Board of Directors.
How is the Norwalk Art Space funded?
The space was opened and fully funded by the Panovka/Korry family, our founders, when it opened in 2021. Now they provide about a quarter of our funding, in addition to free rent. The rest comes from other private foundations, state and local grants, board members, art space activities and community donations. This amazing support since opening shows how much people care for the arts in Fairfield county and we are internally grateful.
How important to the NAS operations is the Arts Bash?
The Arts Bash Gala—or celebration, as I like to call it—brings in about half of the annual funds needed to keep our space active, accessible, and free for all underserved communities.
Tell us about this year’s Arts Bash. What can attendees expect to experience?
This year’s event will honor our cafe manager and overall food genius Bill Taibe. Having him and the cafe team of Andrea Dinan, Caitlin McGowan and Kelly Clemente associated with the Art Space has brought in such great energy and taste to the venue. After five years, we just had to honor the team’s greatness, full trust and support, especially for helping us open during or after the Covid years. This year, we will have great food from The Art Space Cafe and our other partner Marcia Selden Catering, music by the Rick Reyes Band and DJ Dinaro; and auction items ranging from private dinners at the Art Space and sunset cruises to an epic food experience touring New York’s best pizza places with Bill Taibe and Anthony Falco, the ‘Pizza Czar.’ It’s sure to be a beautiful event with a wonderful crowd supporting the Arts for All. It’s always fun, and make sure to wear what you think is your best ‘Creative Cocktail’ attire—up to you on how you want to interpret that.
What else, if anything, would you like to tell our readers about the Norwalk Art Space or Arts Bash 2026?
The Norwalk Art Space is a magical sun-drenched space where you can run into friends and connect over the shared experiences artists capture on canvas; it’s a place where the food will leave you dreaming of your next meal. It will also be a place to disconnect from all your devices, find your breath to connect with the beauty of our neighbors’ experiences and reflect on what others are trying to say through art, music, dance and spoken word.