Marie Glotzbach: Growing Audiences for the Arts
The idea of
a comprehensive arts festival celebrating the cultural resources and arts
programming in the Saratoga
region became a matter of serious discussion about eight years ago. That's when
representatives from Skidmore, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Yaddo, the
Saratoga County Arts Council, and other arts organizations came together to
imagine a community-wide initiative to promote all of the arts. By 2006, conversations had coalesced into a
plan for an event that would combine emerging and established artists with local,
national, and international reputations at diverse performance venues and
exhibit spaces in Saratoga Springs.
The success of the first SaratogaArtsFest -- held in 2007 from June 15 to 17 --
launched an annual tradition.
 |
Marie Glotzbach
|
As festival
coordinator, Marie Glotzbach heads the team of approximately 165 volunteers who
are now finalizing their preparations for SaratogaArtsFest 2009 – a four-day
celebration that starts Thursday. A theater educator for more than 35 years,
she's a lecturer in the Skidmore's Department of Theater and a member of the board
of directors of Saratoga's Universal Preservation Hall. She also spearheads Saratoga Reads!, the community-wide
single-book reading project that this year focused on Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees.
Q: SaratogaArtsFest
was conceived as a way to "bring the arts together." In what ways has
it achieved this?
Glotzbach: ArtsFest
has served as a communications and promotions umbrella for all of the arts in Saratoga. By forming the Partners Council, we have
brought together representatives from 35 performing arts organizations,
museums, and galleries. Coming together to discuss ways to promote all of the
arts in Saratoga
has helped build awareness, collaboration, and synergy among these
organizations. Another initiative that
is working toward building audiences for all of these organizations is our
Annual Directory of the Arts. This
publication -- which is included in an ARTSPASS
Admission Package -- lists all of the programs and season offerings for the
coming year. We have also encouraged
partners to provide year-round benefits with the ARTSPASS at their events, and we regularly feature a Partner
organization on our website.
Q: You've made a big
effort to reach out to the schools this year. How has this been received?
Glotzbach: We
are very enthusiastic about our new Project YES! -- Youth Experiencing
SaratogaArtsFest. Through this program we have partnered with donors and the Saratoga Springs School District to provide ARTSPASS Admission Packages to 250
students from eight schools at no cost to them.
We feel this is a terrific response for this first year of Project YES!
And look forward to growing participation next year both in number of donors
and in reaching out to other schools in the area. In addition to having access to all 100
events at the ArtsFest, students who were awarded a Project YES! Package will also
have the opportunity to meet the artists at several of our venues. We are committed to making the arts
accessible to all, and our efforts to reach young audiences are a major part of
that commitment.
Q: This year's ArtsFest
is offering 100 events in 54 venues. There are some obvious highlights, like
the Paul Taylor Dance Company on Thursday night and "coffee with William
Kennedy" on Sunday morning. Are there performances by others that you're
especially pleased to be bringing to Saratoga
this year?
Glotzbach: The
real highlight is not any one performance or art exhibit, but rather the sheer
number of offerings and the variety of genres and types of events. We are particularly pleased that so many
local and regional arts organizations are joining in from Caffe Lena and the
many galleries on Beekman Street,
to Lake George Opera and the Albany Symphony. Combining these with artists from
around the nation gives ArtsFest a truly unique energy and feel.
Q: Plans are already
underway for SaratogaArtsFest 2010. What do you see as the future of ArtsFest?
What more can be done to "bring the arts together"?
Glotzbach: Saratoga is well established as
a destination for the arts. We will
continue to work to increase our unified voice with the mission to grow
audiences for all of the arts. Expanding
the reach of our promotion efforts to inform folks of the value of the ARTSPASS will continue as more discounts
and benefits are added. We anticipate that our Annual Directory of the Arts
will continue to improve as a vehicle for collecting and promoting all of the
arts events during the year.
We
are very excited for 2010 ArtsFest to add the opportunity of grant support to
our performing arts Partner organizations.
This funding will make it possible for local organizations to provide
programming with less burden on their budgets.
This added support is made possible because of our Prelude fundraising event scheduled for June 10.
And,
of course, we will continue to bring representatives from arts organizations to
the table to exchange ideas and work together to address shared challenges and
concerns. As we all collaborate to provide a unified approach to promotion and
funding, every artist and arts organization in benefits as we build the
cultural tourism of Saratoga.
Tags:
