CULTURE: PROGRESS REPORTS

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culture: progress reports

The Community Music Center of Boston (Cat’06 - [chid: 5769]), listed last year, located at BCA (next page), received nearly $10,000 from Catalogue donors, including a single gift of $8,000.

Bottom Line (Cat’04 – [chid: 1080]) provides a broad range of personal support services to disadvantaged students working to enter and remain in college. It can be their mentor, friend, guidance counselor, financial aid advisor, career counselor—whatever is needed. Catalogue donors were clearly impressed, and responded generously that year with $10,000. Now only three years later BL’s staff has grown from 9 to 14, their budget has grown from $600,000 to $1.06 million, and they need to grow more. Can you help?

The Cantata Singers (Cat’97 - [chid: 118]) was already, when we listed them, one of Boston’s world-class musical organizations. Founded in 1964, it is a volunteer chorus blessed by strong and sophisticated philanthropic backing, providing excellent and prominent artistic leadership, so that it could commission and premier ten works in the past two decades (the tenth in January, 2008), produce nine commercial recordings of works from Bach to (former director), John Harbison. In the ten years since their listing they have continued to receive critical acclaim for their performances, expanded their “Classroom Cantata” program, doubled their budget, completed a capital campaign, hired directors of development and education and completed a long-range strategic plan.

ZUMIX (Cat’97 – [chid: 329]) has been a happening, award-winning, youth organization with outstanding leadership, using the arts to build community in East Boston and beyond. They have an extraordinarily rich variety of programs, including their own radio station ZUMIX RADIO; a yearlong computer skills program teaching entrepreneurship; and The Village, a weekly gathering for wide-ranging conversation with staff and others. In 2004-5 they competed for and won, from Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development, the 9,000 sq. ft. former Engine Company 40 Firehouse, which they plan to transform into a “beautiful, functional, and inspiring cultural and performance space for ZUMIX programs, our young participants, and the East Boston community at large.” They recently completed a strategic planning process, and the next step is a Capital Campaign to refurbish the Firehouse, for which they will need support from Catalogue donors. The Catalogue is proud to have been a relatively early promoter of ZUMIX, which had been founded in 1991. They received one $600 grant from their listing in the first Catalogue.

The Boston Center for Arts (Cat’97 - [chid: 94]) is, in philanthropic parlance, a “community arts center”—that is, a focal point for the arts in a community, where art and artists are nurtured to enhance that community’s quality of life. BCA does this for Boston in three main ways, by being: a creative and affordable home for diverse artists, a “welcoming and inclusive” arts destination, and an arts education resource for urban youth and their families. BCA houses 50 artists’ studios, an exhibition gallery, four theaters, education and rehearsal spaces, and the historic Cyclorama rotunda. BCA has partnered with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Druker Management Company and the Huntington Theater Company to develop the land adjacent to the BCA, which produced in 2004 the Calderwood Theatre Pavilion. Visitation has doubled, to over 200,000 annually. BCA has therefore entered a new growth phase, in which it is a major force helping to revitalize the South End.

José Mateo’s Ballet Theater (Cat’01 - [chid: 413]) appeared in the Catalogue just after they had acquired their beautiful historic church, now Sanctuary Theater studios and performance space, near Harvard Square. JMBT promotes dance at the highest levels of performance and education. Their company is one of Boston’s best—presenting original, highly accessible, works, and new interpretations of classical ballets, choreographed by Jose Mateo for their unique cabaret-style audience seating in the Theatre. Their education programs on five campuses (Cambridge, Duxbury, Hingham, Falmouth, and Barnstable), in collaboration with the Cape Cod Conservatory, are highly respected for their excellent faculty, nurturing environment, and commitment to promoting the broadest access to dance through specialized teaching for students of “all levels, ages, body types, and backgrounds.” Their new 5-year strategic plan calls for rebalancing their capital structure, increased fundraising capacity, strengthened corporate communications and adoption of the “balanced score card” method of organizational assessment—all signs of institutional maturity.

Epiphany School (Cat’01 - [chid: 374]) is a spectacularly successful private school for 81 lottery-selected inner-city youngsters. Their method? Idealistic leadership and faculty, and hard work. They are open 12 hours a day, 6 days a week; they serve three meals a day; they provide health, prevention and social services, programming on weekends and during the summer. Epiphany also follows through with its 113 graduates. They have built a new schoolhouse near Codman Square in Dorchester, and in 2005 they purchased an abandoned and dangerous property adjacent to the schoolhouse, known as “Mather Court,” which they renovated for affordable housing for Intern Teachers, and their first-ever outdoor play-yard. Their model has gained influence—there are already 12 “Epiphany-inspired” schools. They now have $600,000 left to raise in a $5 million capital campaign, so Catalogue donors, let’s help.

Another youth arts program in that first Catalogue was the Harwich Junior Theater (Cat’97 - [chid: 179]). We wrote about how their windows leaked, and their rooms needed re-partitioning. Ten years later, HJT is mortgage-free, operating in the black for the last nine years, and has purchased an adjacent property on which it will build a new education building. Their budget has nearly quadrupled, they now stage 12 productions annually, enroll 600 students in their education programs, and reach thousands more in schools with a rich variety of theatrical offerings. Their Harwich Winter Theatre is an adult resident company. They have received numerous awards and critical acclaim for their quality productions by and for people of all ages, including learning-disabled adults. They, too, report that their Catalogue listing attracted donations and new respectful attention: “HJT was highlighted in the first year…and many people commented and congratulated us. I think being a part of the Catalogue for Philanthropy lends credibility and a certain “cachet” to our goals.”

Indian Hill Music (Cat’00 - [chid: 42]), founded in 1985 in Groton and moved to Littleton in 1996, is the oldest arts organization in the 40-town region north of Worcester and west of Route 495. The Catalogue helped promote their successful $3.5 million capital campaign, to purchase and transform an existing building for offices, 23 practice rooms, a 200-seat recital hall, and an endowed scholarships program. Now IHM annually reaches 1,400 Music School students; 7,000 concert goers; 430 subscribers; 800 teens (3 open mikes and “Battle of the Bands); 1, 800 seniors for 10 free Bach’s Lunches and free concerts at senior centers; 50 students in four masterclasses; 20 corporate sponsors; 40 community business partners; and 25 Friends of the Orchestra. One of their Catalogue donations came in eleven months after they were listed, for $1,215. Philanthropy is essential to their success, and you can join them.

From the Top (Cat’04 - [chid: 1098]) began in 1997 as a radio show designed to bring classical music to youth by spotlighting the thousands of kids who perform it at the highest levels of skill and artistry nationwide. Today it is the country’s leading media and educational organization devoted to celebrating young musicians, with a weekly audience of 750,000, expected to reach over 1,000,000 families with their upcoming live television show: “From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall.” They say their Catalogue listing in 2004 helped build their local reputation among donors and grantmakers. They are clearly responsible for inspiring a new generation of classical music performers and listeners, and they need growth investments.

RAW Arts (Cat’01 - [chid: 351]) offers a rich array of arts programs for inner city youth in Lynn. Their Catalogue listing attracted one foundation and eight new donors in the first year, contributing $3,075. Of those 9 donors, 7 have given multiple gifts for a total of over $7,325. Since their listing, general fundraising has also improved; their staff has grown by a third (to 15), and their budget by 70% (to $965,000); they completed a $1.2 million capital campaign to purchase their building. With more resources they have added successful new projects and won several awards—their Reel to Reel Film School was named a Massachusetts Cultural Council Gold Star Project in 2006. This is one of the best urban youth arts programs in the Commonwealth, and well worthy of your support.

Since SpeakEasy Stage Company was listed (Cat’01 - [chid: 366]), they have had phenomenal success. Their 2002 production of Bat Boy: The Musical, garnered national attention and larger audiences, which enabled them to make the difficult transit from a volunteer staff with an artistic director to four paid employees. Their income has steadily increased by 20-30% each year. The largest of four resident companies at BCA, SpeakEasy currently produces a five-show season at the Roberts Theater Studio. They have received more awards than we can list. Critics, the media, and their audiences love them. You will too.

Preservation Massachusetts (a.k.a. Historic Massachusetts, Cat’97 - [chid: 180]) led the conception, drafting and successful advocacy for the 2003 Massachusetts State Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit, which provides incentives for developers and preservation projects. The credit has clearly demonstrated the economic benefits of historic preservation.

The William E. Carter School (Cat’03 - [chid: 819]) applied to us in 2003 with only a beautiful philanthropic idea: to design and build an educational garden for their profoundly developmentdelayed, multi-handicapped, students—the lowest 2% of such diagnoses, amounting to 1/10,000 live births. This garden would awaken and nourish the children’s senses. Today, that idea has been realized. Students can feel soft grass, hear tinkling sounds, pick and smell flowers and move around safely on their own, away from the stress of the rest of school and street traffic. This is a great example of philanthropy that is simply caring.