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January 16, 2004/Tevet 22 5764, Vol. 56, No.17
Vibrant arts scene tied to communal support
VICKI CABOT
Contributing Editor
Local arts offerings proliferate, from "Shmulik's Waltz," the latest production in the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company's 16th season, to a lineup of seven films in the new Sun Lakes Jewish Film Festival, which opened last week. Pictured are Chris Williams and Chris Mascarelli in "Shmulik's Waltz."
Photo by Mark Gluckman
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Jewish culture in the Valley," harrumphed a friend derisively when I mentioned the story I was writing.
"What culture?"
What culture indeed.
There is an abundance of riches in the Valley Jewish community if we take the time to seek them out - and support them. Phoenix may not be New York, Chicago or Los Angeles - we may not yet have world-class institutions such as the Jewish Museum in New York or the Skirball in Los Angeles - but we have an ever-widening array of cultural resources and more opportunities to engage with the arts than ever before. This month's Sun Lakes Jewish Film Festival, which opened last week at Pollack Tempe Cinemas, is a case in point.
But the festival, like most of the cultural offerings in the Valley, would never have screened even the first of its seven films, without the persistence of a few dedicated individuals.
The desire to stimulate vibrant cultural life here - exposing Valley Jews to the richness of Jewish intellectual and artistic expression while creating a climate that would nurture burgeoning local efforts - is intrinsic to our history. Sixty years ago, women were organizing book groups to provoke serious literary discussion; today there are myriad such groups of both men and women throughout the Valley. Efforts to attract eminent Jewish writers, thinkers and artists to speak or perform are legion - and continue to abound. And the addition of new resources to augment our impressive number of Jewish institutions and programs including Jewish libraries, museums, lecture series, film festivals, plays, concerts and other offerings reflects a continued commitment to the arts.
Artistic expression and intellectual interchange provide points of access to the Jewish experience. They help us to process our world, to become more tolerant of its inherent diversity and infinite variety, and expose those on the outside to Jewish history and culture. They also provide the glue that can bring us together as a community.
"The arts provide the opportunity to see the human condition in all its different manifestations," says Shelley Cohn, executive director of the Arizona Commission for the Arts and avid arts advocate.
"They allow us to communicate with others and see something we might not have been able to articulate in words." And Jewish artistic expression allows us - and others - to learn about ourselves.
"We can provide an entr‚e back to the Jewish world for some who have lost connections and a reminder to others of their Jewish roots," says Janet Arnold of the synergy that takes place between audience and performers on stage. Arnold is the founding director of Arizona Jewish Theatre Company, which seeks to plumb the depth of the Jewish experience.
Arnold also extols the theater's ability to enlighten non-Jews about the Jewish experience.
"It's an opportunity for cultural exchange," she says.
Sheldon Pierson, who with his wife Phyllis, founded the Phoenix Jewish Film Festival nine years ago says the couple wanted to bring people together and reinforce communal ties while exposing audiences to the breadth of Jewish life.
"We have broadened people's ideas about Jewish life in other parts of the world," says Pierson, mentioning films that showcase life in France, Algeria and Africa. And helped to cultivate a culture of respect and tolerance for difference.
"We get to look at the world through the eyes of the storyteller," says his wife of the cinema experience. "It helps us to become more respectful and tolerant."
Arnold suggests that the arts are what make us humane.
"If more people participated in the arts, it would be a kinder, gentler world," she says.
Participation, as viewers and supporters, is key.
"There is a tremendous demand to produce," notes Cohn, who has had her finger on the pulse of the state arts scene for more than two decades, "(but) the challenge is to find the human and financial resources to deliver the artistic vision."
Arnold, a self-described frustrated actress who recalls playing Goldilocks in kindergarten, founded AJTC 16 years ago. A former high school English teacher and early childhood educator, she jumped at the chance to develop a children's theater program at the old Jewish Community Center on Maryland Avenue when the former theater program left. That initial effort gradually grew into a Jewish community theater and AJTC's current role as one of only four professional theater companies in town.
The company now stages four shows a year, two additional children's productions, and a variety of workshops and programs for children and teens.
The Piersons tell a similar story of starting small and growing their vision into a premiere Valley event.
The couple, who retired to the Valley 14 years ago from Cleveland, approached Rabbi Bill Berk of Temple Chai with the idea of a film festival after attending a similar event in Los Angeles.
"There was nothing like this in Phoenix that reaches out to people," says Phyllis Pierson. "We wanted to bring people together."
Beginning with little more than Berk's blessing, a commitment from Temple Chai for initial seed money and their own determination, the Piersons researched the concept and staged the first festival a year later, showing three films at the old UA theater adjacent to Scottsdale Center for the Arts.
"We knew nothing," says Phyllis Pierson of their foray into the world of cinema. Sheldon Pierson is a retired marketing executive; Phyllis is a former early childhood educator.
This year, the film festival is screening eight films at a variety of Valley locations, adding two matinees in response to public demand.
Pamela Levin began as a volunteer at the Sylvia Plotkin Judaica Museum 20 years ago. A biologist by profession, Levin found that working with the museum collection made good use of her cataloguing skills and Judaic background. She eventually returned to school to further hone her professional credentials, earning a museum studies certificate at Arizona State University.
Today, Levin serves as the Plotkin museum's director, and sole paid employee, overseeing the museum's 1,000-piece permanent collection and its three temporary exhibits each year. While Temple Beth Israel, where the museum is housed, provides some administrative support, Levin depends on volunteers to greet visitors and lead organized tours, staff the museum's gift shop and help with some administrative tasks.
The Plotkin museum sparked an interest in Jewish history that led to the creation of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society, a group dedicated to preserving Arizona's Jewish roots. Last year, the group purchased the site of Phoenix's first synagogue, located at 1122 E. Culver Street, for a Jewish Heritage Center. The building, the original Culver Street Synagogue, once renovated, will also house the Greater Phoenix Geneological Society and the Phoenix Holocaust Survivors Association.
"Those who came out West and built new lives here made it possible for us to have the wonderful Jewish community we have today," says AJHS executive director Risa Mallin, the society's sole paid employee. "It's important for us to know those roots."
The new facility, adjacent to the Burton Barr Public Library in downtown Phoenix, is part of a complex of museums that reflect the Valley's cultural and religious diversity. Both the Irish cultural center and the Japanese friendship gardens are nearby.
Jay Bycer, co-founder, along with Cantor Marc Philippe of Beth El Congregation, of the Jewish Cultural Orchestra, staged two sold-out concerts last year on a shoestring budget with only a cadre of dedicated volunteers for support.
Philippe had spearheaded a similar project in Boca Raton, Fla., pairing professional musicians with other local resources to produce Jewish musical events. Bycer, and co-director Barbara Zemel, jumped on the concept to produce Jewish musical programs and raise money for local charities. In its first year, JCO has netted nearly $80,000, earmarked for Jewish causes.
"There was a void in this community," says Bycer. "We assessed a need and the possibility and created a process to get it done."
Human capital abounds, but for the Valley arts scene to develop and grow, what's needed is more than sweat equity.
"People go - but they don't write checks," laments Sheldon Pierson. Film festival proceeds are divided among sponsoring congregations and agencies in return for their participation as viewers and volunteers. Annual budget for the festival is $14,000; last year, each sponsoring group received $1,400. This year, festival organizers hope to realize an additional $1,800, which they've pledged for an award to a film student at Hadassah College in Jerusalem for the best Jewish film. Underwriting and sponsorships would go far to ensure the festival's survival and spark its growth.
"As the Jewish population grows, we have to look seriously at broadening our festival, extending it or showing more movies at the same time," says Sheldon Pierson. And that costs money.
Arnold, with a $300,000 annual budget, says she depends on ticket sales and youth program fees to keep afloat. An end-of-the-year appeal asked community members to help subsidize the $3,000 the company needs to provide bus transportation for seniors to AJTC productions.
She bemoans the lack of long-term communal support.
The company receives funds from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, Arizona Public Service, the Phoenix Arts Commission, American Express, Wells Fargo Bank, Johnson Bank and recently received a federal 21st century learning grant that will allow it to expand its children's module into classrooms with programs specifically for at-risk students.
But the Jewish community, apart from past help from the Jewish Community Foundation for its senior transportation program and congregations who provide space for children's programming, has provided little institutional support.
The new Culver Street Synagogue was purchased for $540,000 last June by the historicial society, due in large part to the generosity of one donor. Larry Cutler made the donation in memory of his parents, Jim and Bettie Cutler, and to honor longtime Valley spiritual leader, Rabbi Albert Plotkin. Mallin estimates that it will cost $1.7 million to renovate the building, which was built in 1921. She says that AJHS must raise at least $1 million locally to qualify for city and state funding for historic preservation as well as to apply for other available grants.
"We have to figure out how to excite the public so that they will come forth with the money," says Mallin. A Jan. 10 fund-raiser honoring Plotkin provided a boost. According to Judy Stern, event chairwoman, some $40,000 of the proceeds will go to the AJHS project and an equal amount to the Plotkin museum at TBI.
Cohn describes the current status of arts organizations in the state, both Jewish and otherwise, as in a period of growth and stability. She notes that when she first entered the scene 25 years ago, organized fund-raising structures did not exist.
That is changing, she says, and is key to inspiring growth.
What's needed is leadership, says Cohn.
"The community needs to come forward and make (supporting the arts) a positive cultural value," she says. In other major Jewish communities, individual philanthropists have provided critical financial stability.
"Ticket purchases we make cover barely one half of the real costs (of staging a production, concert or show)," notes Cohn. The remainder has to be made up by contributions - or paying minimal salaries to professionals "who do this as a labor of love - but also have mortgages to pay."
As a recent Arizona Republic article pointed out, arts organizations in the state rely disproportionately on ticket sales to pay the bills. Without corporate underwriting or long-term philanthropic support, their future viability remains at risk.
"It takes investment and commitment," says Cohn. And collaboration.
Levin reiterates the need for developing long-term financial support.
While she is appreciative of those who visit the museum and make minimal contributions, she says that the institution needs substantive financial resources to assure its future.
"The community wants it when it wants it," she says of its cultural resources, "but it doesn't realize that it has to support it all the time."
Half of the museum's $75,000 budget is absorbed by TBI; still, says Levin, if the museum, now considered the largest synagogue museum in the country, wants to expand it must garner sufficient financial backing.
"We have a good foundation," she says. "We just need support from the community to do what we want to do."
Beyond generating greater financial resources, arts advocates are seeking greater collaboration and partnering. Levin foresees joint marketing efforts as a potential benefit.
Bycer, a marketer by profession, says that Jewish arts offerings must be keyed to providing good entertainment and good value.
He credits effective pricing, marketing in the non-traditional Jewish media, staging in a professional venue and tying the concerts to charitable causes as the keys to success and future growth.
"It has to be good entertainment and a good cause," he says.
Bycer, too, says that greater collaboration is a win/win for communal ventures.
"I'd like to see Phoenix pool our resources and come together as a community," he says.
Contact the writer at vicki_cabot@jewishaz.com.
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