Donor Features & CAP News

Links to News and Features (on this page):

For our latest grant awardees, visit our "Recent Grantee Page"

* $685,000 in funding
* THANK YOU for an amazing 2022!
* To Help One Person... Donor Judy Barringer
* Returning to the Theatre, Guest Editorial, by Rachel Lampert
* Focusing on the Community, Donor Bousquet, Holstein PLLC
* Delight and Energy, Donor and Artist Torie Tiffany
* Our Latest Creative Recovery Fund Grantees
* Anticipating Spring, Donor Minna Resnick, artist
* Our Celebration of 30 years event. Watch the video
* Support Your local Arts: Guest Editorial, by Emma Plotkin 
* Giving Affirms Our Own Values: Donors: Margot and Fred Schoeps
* Art Brings People Together: Donor Emily Russell, The Frame Shop
* Creative Entrepreneurship: Donor, Sue Perlgut, filmmaker
* Keeping the Arts Vibrant: Donor Diana Nathanielsz
* Supporting the Arts Through a Bookstore: Odyssey Bookstore
* Art and Science Meet - Donor, artist Werner Sun, visual artist
* Now More than Ever - Donor Pamela Tan
* Succeeding Together from Robin Schwartz, Program/Grant Director
* February 2021 Celebration of the Arts - Watch the video

 

$685,000 in funding

We are grateful to the Tompkins County Legislature,  Strategic Tourism Planning Board, Tourism Department, and everyone who advocated for this additional funding of $685,000 of funding to stabilize vulnerable arts and culture organizations in Tompkins County.

Current recipients of the Tourism Program's Arts & Culture Organizational Development grants who meet specific eligibility criteria are eligible to apply. 

This funding will go a long way to stabilizing vulnerable organizations and the sector as a whole, helping organizations make important investments in staffing and operations that will pay off for years to come in terms of economic impact, tourism impact and local quality of life.

 

• Engaged more artists than ever before in 2022, supporting them in their careers through outreach, one-on-one brainstorming, workshops and opportunities to sell and share their art with the public.
• Grew each of our programs with more artist, more access, and greater audiences.
• Created a new vision: A world where the arts and artists thrive.
• And a new mission: To strengthen the arts in Tompkins County by supporting artists and arts groups, ensuring equitable access to the arts, and cultivating a creative culture that reflects our community’s diversity.
• Distributed $350,000 through six grant programs that funded over 500 local artists, arts organizations and community organizations.
• Brought together a record $550,000 to distribute for the arts in 2023.

 

To help one person, that’s your purpose. That’s art.

(by Judith Pratt. Photo credit: Robyn Wishna, Spirit of Tompkins project, 2021)

Judy Barringer notes that she never had a “career”--as in staying with one job for years. She has, however always loved making art and cooking.

“A career is what culture tells you that you have to have,” she explained. Among other jobs, she has detasseled and shucked corn, worked “at the Book Sale Gallery on W. State Street, a bookstore of somewhat questionable repute,” and stage managed for Third Floor Productions. She has also worked as a graphic designer.

Barringer was one of seven people who founded the vegetarian Moosewood Restaurant. “I came to Ithaca to visit a friend, and never left,” she recalled.  Her story of wandering by a “for rent” sign in the old DeWitt school and deciding, with her friends, to open a vegetarian restaurant, has often been told. They were trying to be vegetarians, but in 1970, it wasn’t easy.( When briefly working at the old Kentucky Beef restaurant, Barringer noted, she lived on their “3-bean salad, macaroni salad, and potato salad.”)

When Moosewood opened, they had only three cookbooks, Diet for a Small Planet, the Vegetarian Epicure, and the Ten Talents Cookbook from the vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists. “Now it’s easy to find vegetarian recipes,” Barringer said.

Between 2003 and 2007, she was the chef at the Saltonstall Foundation. In 2007, she was “bumped up to Director,” a position she held until 2011. “I went from scullery maid to queen!” she quipped.

As Director, she said, “I would chat with people about the place and its artists. It’s important to think about what if the arts were all take away. Take the art off your walls, the books out of the bookcase, unplug all your music-making devices. How would you relate to the world without the arts?”

She pointed to some medieval brass rubbings on my wall. “Look at everything they tell you about a world of Christianity and chivalry. They were the recorder of their times. Without art, the world would be devoid of human experience. The first artist did a handprint on a cave wall to say---I am here, I did this! That’s what art is--it documents one person’s interpretation of our realities.” “I will stress this forever,” she concluded.

“I’m not an art snob,” Barringer noted. “I’m loving the murals around town. One of those mural projects celebrated the opening of the Hip-Hop Collection at Cornell. Many graffiti artists from around the world were invited to paint their art on the blank exterior walls of the old Cornell University Press building on Cascadilla Street. Sally Grubb from Tompkins County Library had a graffiti artists sketch the murals, and then the whole community was invited to help color them in. Each person had a section to color in, using spray paint. Just fabulous!”

Now Barringer is board president at the Ink Shop Printmaking Center. Her own art includes printmaking, painting, collage, and altered books. She showed photographs of one of her altered books, with pages folded or torn, the edges painted or burned. She found photos of Ukrainians learning to shoot with wooden guns, because there weren’t enough soldiers to me the initial Russian attacks. Then she attached copies of these photos to pages where the “bad poetry in the book had similar images.”

“I was taught to take care of a book!” she said. But she finds books no one wants, or that are already partly destroyed--such as an old Bible stored in the cellar of her house. “It’s been chewed by mice, the pages are glued together by moisture--but I can’t destroy it, even though I’m not formally religious.” Instead, she copied the pages to use in collages. Barringer gives to the arts, “because it important for all the reasons I talked about, and because I have more than I need to live. 97% of my giving is local. That’s where you make the most difference”

Along with CAP, Barringer gives to the Ink Shop and the Saltonstall Foundation, as well as to Loaves and Fishes. When I mention that her giving to Loaves and Fishes makes sense, because she feeds people, Barringer laughs. “I have a hard time cooking for one or two people!”

In conclusion, Barringer notes that the Dalai Lama said that you only have to have an impact onone person, that’s what your life is worth. “To help one person, that’s your purpose. That’s art.”

 

Returning to the Theatre
By Rachel Lampert

Sometime in Spring 2020, when the pandemic had closed down and my life irised into a tiny circle, I searched for my community. It was out there, but the community no longer gathered in the unique performance venues Ithaca enjoys.

Determined by a need to make work and survive, stage directors learned to direct plays on zoom; actors learned to be set designers for do-it-from-your-home productions; playwrights adjusted their work for this new, uncharted territory; and musicians figured out the time delay so they could play together.  

I did my own pandemic producing when a live performance of a new family musical I had written was COVID-canceled. I used paper puppets designed by visual artist and designer, Rose Howard, with moveable joints at the shoulder, elbow, hip, knee, and foot as my cast. Exteriors were from painters I found on the internet and got permission to use their artwork. 

Many YouTube tutorials later, my on-the-job training resulted in a 30-minute video. Filmed on my iPhone for more hours than I ever imagined; the months of isolation went by. The songs and the dialogue were recorded remotely by actors.  It felt like a triumph. I was still a working artist, employing and collaborating with actors and designers! And in the end, I had something I could share with an audience, albeit an audience not in the same room.

Watch "The Memory Book, a new Aunt Mae story HERE

For a while, this kind of innovative making-the-best-of-it was intriguing. I watched all sorts of things on my computer from around the world. But I was missing the joy of live performance. The gathering of people to share an experience.

During the pandemic, every performing group, theater, concert hall, and cinema venue was forced to assess the future and make whatever adjustments were needed. Changes were made in air delivery systems, audience capacity, masking, distancing, and more. All invested in audience safety and comfort as they readied for when the doors opened again.

In the summer of 2021, CRS Barn offered outdoor concerts; the Hangar did their season outside, and the Kitchen came back with one outdoor production, as did several others. I was delighted to attend live performances and cherished every minute, bug spray in hand, umbrella ready; I was so grateful.

But even as more doors began to open in the fall of 2021, attendance in our cherished venues has been slow, affecting many arts organizations.

I have an ample quotient of fear of getting sick, and I take only calculated risks.  And, I have gone back to the theaters, the cinema, and indoor concerts. I wear my mask to fortify my goal of not catching anything and keep up to date with boosters. I have conversations outside the venues and skip the lobby chats. And I am so thankful to the arts leaders for making live theater and cinema possible.

Everyone must make their own decision for their comfort and safety. But I want to encourage more thought about returning to the theaters and cinema because they need us. If you can’t attend, you can buy a ticket and take advantage of the streaming options the Kitchen, Cherry Arts, Civic Ensemble, and others offer. If you have gotten out of the habit of going to the theater, try again. For our performing arts and cinematic resources to be there in the future, I encourage support in any way you can.

A play may be fantastic on the page, an opera or concerto gorgeous as a score, and a film can be watched from the couch. But I am thrilled to return to the shared communal space of watching, listening, and enjoying with others. Hope you will join me.

(RACHEL LAMPERT has been writing, directing and producing plays for the past fifty years.  She served for twenty years as artistic director of Kitchen Theatre Company.  Since retiring she has been spearheading Fitz&Startz Productions, where she can continue to share her enthusiasm of theatre, music and dance with audiences of all ages, and gigs around whenever exciting projects come her way)

 

Our Latest Creative Recovery Fund Grantees.

CAP's Creative Recovery Fund, now in its second year, provided funds for Tompkins County community-focused arts projects that will make a difference in our communities in the focus areas of racial justice, public and mental health, and economic recovery.

 

Focusing on the Community

(June 5, written by CAP board member Judith Pratt)

The Syracuse law firm, Bousquet Holstein PLLC, opened an office in Ithaca in 2018. Beginning in 2019, they became a regular and generous donor to CAP. Speaking with their marketing director, Jan Quitzau, I discovered that this law firm focuses on providing the best legal counsel for their clients and giving generously to the communities where their attorneys and staff live and work.

But first, a guide. “It’s the name no one can pronounce!” Jan quips. The name is BOOS-kay HOLsteen. And Jan’s name is pronounced Yan QUIT-sow.

Jan Quitzau came to Bousquet Holstein after twenty years working in travel and tourism. “I got to know Larry Bousquet when he served on the board of the Syracuse City School District Educational Foundation, where I was the part-time administrator/manager, and he mentioned that he was looking for a marketing director. Throughout my entire career I’ve always been a marketing person.”

The firm was originally founded in 1961 as Green and Seifter. When Edward Green retired and Lowell Seifter took another law job in 2011, the firm needed a new name. “It’s an ethics rule,” Quitzau explained. “If someone is practicing law somewhere else, they can’t have their name on another law firm. So there was a scramble in 2012 because the name had to change.” They took the name of the firm’s managing partners, Laurence Bousquet and David Holstein.

The firm’s approach to giving back began with founder Edward Green. He and his family had a strong sense of community. “They truly believed that people should give back to the communities where they lived and worked,” Quitzau said. “Eddie knew everyone. He was the quintessential relationship builder and built a successful law firm through his personal connections and community engagements.”

For 13 years, Bousquet Holstein has actually had a business development /relationship coach for their attorneys, which is a unique service in the legal industry. “Steve Jacobs, a former successful Syracuse business owner, is a client of the firms and a good friend of Larry Bousquet,” said Quitzau. “Through one-on-one counseling and frequent Lunch & Learn programs, Steve supports attorneys in their efforts to build their practices with insights on how to build personal and community relationships. He shares business development skills they don't teach in law schools.”

The firm employs over 50 attorneys with offices in Ithaca and Syracuse. “All of our attorneys are involved as volunteers and/or board or committee members supporting community organizations,” Quitzau explained. “We encourage attorneys and staff to support organizations, events, or charitable causes they are passionate about. There is no requirement to do so, but it is a core belief of our firm. We also encourage our support staff to volunteer, and let them take that time.”

As the firm has grown, Quitzau said, coordinating these involvements is now about 35% of his working budget. “They teach you in law school that you will be viewed as a leader. We want our attorneys to be in the community, leading.”

Bousquet Holstein also fosters collaboration among their attorneys. “They don’t work in silos,” explained Quitzau. “For example, if we help a client starting their business, our Real Estate Practice can work with them on leasing their office location. If our Family Law Practice works with a client on their divorce, the client can work with our Trusts and Estates Practice to re-do their wills and estate plans.”

How do lawyers manage their time to include community involvement? “Many include their families and participate in events with their kids” said Quitzau. “Working hard is the nature of the legal profession, and balancing client work, family life and community involvement is often a challenging balancing act.

Most of Bousquet Holstein’s financial support goes to places where an attorney or staff member is directly involved. When the firm opened their Ithaca office, Quitzau asked local organizations for guidance and information where his firm could become actively involved. John Spence, then CAP’s executive director, reached out and helped him find non-profits that might interest the firm. Spence also invited Quitzau to talk to the CAP board about marketing. (I was there, and learned a lot. We miss John Spence so much.)

Thank you, Bousquet Holstein and Jan Quitzau, for your support of our community.

 

Delight and Energy

(June 5, written by CAP board member Judith Pratt)

At Healing Path Studio in Danby, Torie Tiffany creates art and healing flower essences. She also offers Reiki sessions and Tarot readings.

“Each of my practices has been a healing gift for me that I love to share with others,” she explained.

Her journey began many years ago, during a challenging time.

“I was physically, mentally and spiritually depleted, just surviving each day, and sure that this was to be my permanent state,” she wrote on her website. Then she found her current house, which needed repair but had a pond. She began to fix up the house and the land.

Working outside gave her a sense of well-being, so she began to study plant medicine and create new art work. Later, she became a Reiki master and began working with the Tarot.  “I found in each of these practices a unique connection to the wider world, an expansion of intuition, and a new path to healing,” she said.

Tiffany was born and raised in Cortland. She came to Ithaca for a job and never wanted to leave.

Art was her first love. “I’ve been passionately creating photo collages since I was a little girl—snipping out bits of pictures and gluing them together to create something unique. When I began doing the process digitally, whole new worlds opened up and I fell in love with the process all over again.”

Her move to Danby re-inspired her art, as she “photographed the blooming beings outside my door.” That led her to studying plant medicine. “I discovered I was surrounded by nature’s apothecary, and began crafting tinctures, teas, oils, salves and flower essences as very effective remedies for practically any ailment that could occur.”

Then she began to study Reiki, because “the memory of an enlightening experience I’d had with Reiki many years before kept popping into my mind.” She wanted to practice it herself, so she found a Reiki Master Teacher. A Reiki session concentrates on the body’s energy centers. The Reiki practitioner uses gentle hand movements over the body, channeling healthy energy to realign and unblock the energy flow. (Full disclosure: I have experienced Reiki, while thinking “okay, weird but I’ll try it.” It works.)

As with Reiki, Tiffany had been intrigued with Tarot as well. When she had her first reading, she said, “I went in with the expectation of having my ‘fortune told’. What I came away with was an entirely new sense of how I might more effectively shape my life.”

Once again, she found a teacher, and began reading for herself daily. “I found Tarot to be profoundly transformative in my life, opening new pathways to connection with Spirit, allowing deeper access to my intuition, empowering my journey and presenting a means for me to help others light their way.”

{Describing Tarot cards and how they work is too complex to explain here. They appeared in Italy in about 1450, and are used to gain insight into one’s life and, sometimes, to tell fortunes.)

Tiffany’s work is all about energy. She explained that “absolutely everything in this world and beyond emits its own energy, and all energy is connected in a universal consciousness.”

Along with helping people in these many ways, Torie Tiffany is a regular CAP supporter.

“CAP offers a beautiful array of programs to support all artists and their creations,” Tiffany said. “The staff is exceptional—professional, accessible, helpful and fun to work with.” She loves being on CAP’s Art Trail. “I get to meet so many great folks, and I love the energy they bring to the studio. I believe when people in a community can experience each other’s creativity, it creates a deeper understanding of each other and a special, stronger bond.”

Torie Tiffany would agree with William Blake, who wrote, “Energy is eternal delight.” 

Learn more at https://www.healingpathstudio.com/

 

Anticipating Spring, Donor Feature with Minna Resnick

(April 5, written by CAP board member Judith Pratt)

Minna Resnick’s full resume is ten pages long.

Her artwork appears in over 50 public and private collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Kunsthaus Grenchen, Switzerland, and at the Brooklyn Museum. She grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, NY.

Her lithograph prints, some combined with drawings, are imbued with cultural statements, some funny, some not. They have wonderful titles: “Practice Optimism,” “It was different now,” “Flight to Eden,” and my personal favorite, “Rewrite your Story.” She notes that her work “has always focused on language.”

She received her BFA at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and her MFA at San Francisco Art Institute.

Minna and her husband, Sid Resnick, came to Ithaca in 1987. “It’s been the longest we have lived anywhere,” Minna said. The couple has lived in Indiana, California, and Colorado, with two years in Haifa, Israel, one year in England, one semester in Australia, and four semesters in Holland over several years.

“It is the first time my studio is in a warm interior space,” said Minna Resnick. “I’m privileged to have my own full print shop.” There, she has started projects with her grandkids, who are now 13, 11, 7, and 4. She noted that the younger ones have to climb on a step stool to reach the handle of the lithographic press.

She is a long-time supporter of CAP. “I donate to CAP yearly, since they support the entire artistic community in every way. I’m not sure how I first learned about them, but I can’t remember a time without knowing the wonderful, encyclopedic Robin Schwartz, who I must have annoyed early and often about everything art -related in Ithaca. The organization is an especially great resource for newcomers and continues to be immensely relevant for continued informational resources. It’s also a great place to donate works of art that you no longer have room for, in the CAP-a-palooza art sale!”

Minna Resnick has shown her work in the CAP ArtSpace gallery, has served as a juror for CAP grants, and was on the Greater Ithaca Art Trail for several years early in its inception. Through CAP, she also discovered the Ink Shop, a cooperative for printmakers. Although not a member, because she has her own studio, she helped consult with the founders.

When asked what she sees as the role of the arts in our community, Minna responded “Everything!” then added, “We are lucky in Ithaca to have a large, functioning arts organization, which provides so much to create a vibrant arts community in Tompkins County.”

As her career took Minna Resnick all over the world, she also raised two children, Rachel and Nathan. Both attended Cornell.

Along with all the artworks she no longer has room for, Minna Resnick is known for her extensive earring collection. In fact, she said, “I still have my original pair of hand-made earrings which I bought after my ears were pierced at 18.” However, she added that, “during the pandemic, I haven’t felt I can wear them 1) since I was afraid of losing one due to mask wearing and 2) a sense of sadness in events, globally and nationally. Wearing my earrings has always been a mark of celebration and there’s not much to celebrate these days. Hopefully I will proudly start putting them on again soon!”

Meanwhile she gardens, walks with friends and, “reluctantly,” goes to the gym. “If I can continue this pattern, I will be a very happy and healthy camper,” she concluded.

She also continues to create her lithographs/drawings. A recent one is called “Anticipating Spring.” So say we all!

 

2022 Celebration of the Arts
It's our 30th year!
 

* Welcomes from Megan Barber, CAP E.D.
* A Few Words: John Saunders, President
* Recognition of all 2021/2022 CAP grant recipients!
 

* Featured Grantees told us about their funded projects:
    - Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers with some great video!
    - Sarah Gotowka, Luna Fiber Studio with video
    - Ann Reichlin, working at Caroline Elementary's "Make Way for Play" project.
* Community Catalyst Award to Dr. Nia Nunn
* CAP Friends of the Arts Awards to Jamie Ferris, P.W. Wood & Son

 

Guest Editorial, by Emma Plotkin

Emma Plotkin was born and raised in Ithaca. She is a voice teacher, singer-songwriter, playwright, and composer whose work was most recently featured at the Hangar Theatre. Emma is passionate about supporting local arts and arts organizations and is thrilled to be  writing for the CAP ArtsLetter.  For more about Emma’s composing/writing, visit https://emmabrennerplotkin.wixsite.com/website-1. To learn about her work as a voice teacher visit https://emmabrennerplotkin.wixsite.com/voice.

 

Giving Affirms our own Values

(February 7, 2022, written by CAP Board member Judith Pratt)

“Imagine if tomorrow every local non-profit no longer existed.
A community’s non-profits are an expression of what we value.
Giving affirms our own values.” Fred Schoeps

Between them, Fred and Margot Schoeps have supported many Tompkins County non-profits:  Ecovillage, the Social Services League, Groundswell, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, the Social Services League, and the Community Arts Partnership.

Margot grew up with classical music in her home. Her father played in a dance band, and her grandfather and brother sang beautifully. “Both parents modeled volunteer work and being of service,” she said.” Music, dance, theatre and art have always been meaningful parts of my life.”

When he was eight years old, Fred’s parents moved to Geneva from their native Germany to work at Geneva Forge. Moving to Ithaca, he said, is “coming back to the Finger Lakes.” In his volunteer work, Fred is concerned with sustainability, a robust downtown economy, and supporting his “lifelong passion for art in all of its many forms.”

Fred worked at IBM in systems engineering, management consulting, and marketing.

Margot worked as a nurse practitioner with mental health training. In fact, she was part of a disaster team at Ground Zero. “It was a vital role for those deployed, serving the distraught families,” she said. “I feel really blessed to have served in that way.”

Fred and Margot Schoeps retired to Ithaca in 2008, after working and raising children in White Plains, NY. “Back when we talked about retirement,” Margot said, “we wanted to move to a college town, with the vibrancy of youth.” Fred added that “we both have a sense of the importance of re-inventing oneself. You have to move to create an adventure!”

Each of the couple has their favorite art form. Fred finds the experience of a piece of art or sculpture particularly moving. In fact, the Schoeps hired Mary Beth Ihnken to create the sunflower murals for the alley between the Ithaca Times and Cornell Store building on Cayuga Street, just south of the Commons. Margot also painted the passage way green in memory of Fred and Margot’s parents. Fred explained that “Alleys should be beautiful, not segregated from the beauty we create throughout downtown.”

Margot loves theater, dance, and music. “I always want there to be live music, the coming together of people, being present with the experience, she said. “It’s the unity amidst the diversity.”

Both Margot and Fred are eloquent about the importance of art in the community. When asked why they support CAP, Fred said: “ Simple. Expressed in three words C- Community, A – Arts, P-Partnership. It’s an investment in our community in partnership with others to assure services and resources for local artists and art in all its many forms will always be there. “

“There’s nothing different than investing in a business, in stock, in a 401K, in a savings account for our family’s well-being. Would I rather have another meal out or sustain our vibrant art community? Is this community worth investing a few hours a month? Is this community worth a few dollars a week to have the vibrancy that we are blessed with?  Yes and Yes.”

Margot added:  “It’s about community . The arts are a vital element of human expression . . . a unifying force. Wherever we live I want to make certain there are opportunities in the arts for all people now and for long after I can participate. “

Asked about the impact of the arts and the role of arts in the community Margot said:
“The arts enliven, open, and bring color to our routinized lives. This community has so much to offer. Every day there is an opportunity. The arts can bring people together--people that might not connect otherwise. Music, dance, art, theatre can lift us out of our perceived separateness and everyday concerns.”

Fred added: “Look around – The impact of CAP--support, programming and services--can be found in every corner of our community. How many artists have been touched in the twenty-nine years of CAP existence? I don’t know. I do know it would take hundreds of hands to begin to count the number. “

“Art is an essential part of the DNA of a community – to its vibrancy, creativity, to its spirit. Art in our community reflects the artist in every one of us. Art connects us; art is part of the DNA of everybody. Art is an expression of our humanity.”

We at CAP couldn’t have said it better. Thank you Fred and Margot Schoeps, for your support and your eloquence.

 

Art Brings People Together
 

(December 7, 2021, written by CAP board member Judith Pratt)

Emily Russell gives to, and volunteers for CAP because “I believe In the mission of the organization. CAP does a wonderful job of supporting the arts in the community and provides many opportunities for everyone to have art in their life.

“Art plays a huge role in our community. Art brings people together.”

Emily owns The Frame Shop, which she took over from her mother, Nancy Russell. There, she said, “I have the good fortune of working with many talented artists each day, while being surrounded by beautiful artwork.”

The Frame Shop has served Ithaca for 65 years. Beginning in 1986, Emily’s mother, Nancy Russell, worked then-owners Hugh and Adele Cheney. In 1988, the Cheneys retired, and Nancy purchased the building.

The Frame Shop is a third career for Emily Russell--although they all add up to managing the Frame Shop, along with her energetic volunteering. She studied hospitality and hotel management at Penn State University, then spent four years working for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia. In 1997, she returned to Ithaca, and began a career in development / fundraising. In that role, she worked at Cornell, the SPCA, and Ithaca College.
As a volunteer, she has served the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, Hospicare, the Tompkins Sports Council, the Elizabeth Ann Clune Montessori School of Ithaca, and the Tompkins Center for History and Culture. Her main focus now includes the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce and the  SPCA of Tompkins County. She is also on the board of the Community Arts Partnership.

“I grew up in a philanthropic family” she said, “so it has always felt natural for me to give back--whether it is giving my time, gifts in kind, or a monetary donation. I like knowing that I’m helping others.”

Somewhere between volunteering and managing The Frame Shop, Russell spends time with her teenage son, two cats and a dog, her parents, and her friends. “I love to hike on our beautiful trails,” she said. She also enjoys photography. “I photograph heart-shaped images that I see on my everyday travels,” she noted. “I have over 250 images!”

Thank you Emily for being a supporter of CAP and for loving art!

 

Creative Entrepreneurship
 

(November 1, 2021, written by CAP board member Judith Pratt)

Sue Perlgut is a long-time and generous donor to CAP. Why? “I live in Ithaca, I used its resources, I get the benefit of its resources. It’s a community that I love. So, to the best of my ability, I give back.”

She is also a creative entrepreneur in the arts. That began in 1970, when she co-founded the It’s All Right To Be Woman Theatre Company in New York City. For six years, the group traveled to women’s centers and college campuses across the U.S. The group was inspired by, and part of, the second wave of feminism. (The first wave was those women who met in Seneca Falls in 1848.)

In 2020, Perlgut completed a documentary about her theatre company. It was the fourth film created by her video company, Close to Home Productions. Learn more at ItsAllRightToBeWomanTheatre.com

A graduate of NYU with a MA in Educational Theatre, Perlgut has been a director, performer, playwright, storyteller, puppet maker, teacher, arts administrator and producer of theatre in New York City and Ithaca NY. In the 1970’s and 80’s she owned and managed two retail businesses: Djuna Books, a feminist bookstore in New York City, and Lucia, a women’s clothing store in Ithaca, NY. ("Full disclosure: I wore an outfit from Lucia for many years--including as a “costume” for a theatre performance.")

Today, Perlgut directs the Senior Theatre Troupe of Lifelong, a group that focuses on performing stories from their own lives. We talk about the importance of telling stories--in performance, on video, and in writing.

How does Sue manage all these undertakings? “Creative people make something, then move on to the next interesting thing,” she explained.

The stories Perlgut chooses, in film and theatre, often focus on women, and always on the  community. She founded Close to Home Productions in 2007, with 101 Ways to Retire--or Not, based on interviews with people’s experience with retirement. It appeared on WSKG-PBS, at the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival, and received a 2008 Mature Media Award. That year her company also worked with Debbie Bosanko to film Stay Strong: Lift for Life. Next came Beets and Beans: Living and Dying with Hospice.

In 2015, Close to Home produced Connie Cook: A Documentary, which was an official selection of the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF). In the summer of 2020, Ithaca’s History Center showed that film here in Ithaca. Cook served in New York State Assembly, where she co-authored a bill signed into law that legalized abortion in New York--three years before the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court.

Close to Home Productions is made up of Perlgut, and talented filmmakers and consultants: Nils Hoover, Ann DiPetta, Jack Reynolds and Christopher Julian. Samples of their work can be seen at https://closetohomeproductions.com/video-production/

But even Sue Perlgut can’t create videos and stories all the time. “I love mystery novels,” she said. “I have a list of books I want to read, and keep track of the authors I like.” Favorites include Jaqueline Winspear, Charles Todd, and Alexander McCall Smith."

We thank Sue for her continuing support of the Community Arts Partnership!

 

Keeping the Arts Vibrant

(October 4, 2021, written by CAP board member Judith Pratt)

Diana Nathanielsz explains that she supports the arts in order to “keep Ithaca’s eclectic character vibrant.”

Her own life might be called eclectic. She grew up in England, worked in medical science, then moved to California. When she came to Ithaca, her interest in the arts became primary.

She grew up in Bedford, England, as Diana Crawford. She notes that her extensive volunteering may have come from her parents. Her mechanical engineer father helped their local church, and visited prisoners. Her mother also volunteered through the church, mostly in support of women and children--and the arts.

After high school, Ms. Nathanielsz decided to study business --that is, get secretarial training-- because her mother “always said that such training allowed one to go into any profession.” Diana’s life has proved her mother right.

After working for physicians at the local hospital, she moved to London to work at a medical teaching hospital. She married endocrinologist Peter Nathanielsz, and the couple moved to Cambridge, where Diana continued to work for various physicians. Her medical experience “allowed me to help my then-husband to self-publish his research and that of other specialists.”

The family, which now included two small children, then relocated to California, where Peter did research at the University of California Los Angeles. It was, Ms. Nathanielsz said, “a shocking change from life in the classical university town of Cambridge UK.”

In Los Angeles, Ms. Nathanielsz began to volunteer, first in the primary school classroom, then for an organization that promoted arts appreciation and encouraged local visual artists. She also helped to put on an annual outdoor music festival that raised funds for the LA Philharmonic.

About twelve years later, the family moved to Ithaca, where Ms. Nathanielsz volunteered in the office at the Community School of Music and Arts ( CSMA), “because it was a resource for all ages in all of the arts.” She also joined the Ithaca Community Chorus. There she began her service as a board member--first for CSMA, next for the Ithaca Community Chorus, and for the board of CAP. She was invited to join the board of the Cayuga Vocal Ensemble, where she ultimately became president. She remains very involved in the Ensemble.

Her children were both interested in the arts. Her daughter Julie studied ballet, then modern dance. Now Julie teaches and performs around the Ithaca area. She also loves to travel, and has studied modern dance all over the world.

Her son, David, “briefly thought he would go on the stage, but soon discovered how difficult that would be.” Instead, he got an MBA, and worked for several video game companies before starting his own company. Ms. Nathanielsz recalls her “mental picture of David, now an adult, and his brother-in-law, a composer working for a video game company, sitting next to each other on the sofa, playing video games with each other at Christmas time.”

Although a singer and music lover, Ms. Nathanielsz also likes going to CAP art shows, noting that “they are enjoyable and intimate, and it’s always good to see others who enjoy these presentations.”

“Giving to CAP means that local arts organizations, young artists, and those new to the area are able to access funding. CAP has their finger on the pulse of ALL the local arts. Those living in Tompkins County benefit from art generated by our neighbors.”

Diana Nathanielsz’ eclectic life has benefited all the arts. Thank you Diana!

 

Supporting the Arts through a Bookstore