Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Invigorating Culture in Harlem
The New York Sun: "The executive director of Harlem Stage, Patricia Cruz, can get very worked up about granite — particularly if it's the granite in the walls of the Gatehouse, the hundred-year-old former municipal water pumping station at Convent Avenue and 135th Street that will open as Harlem Stage's new theater next month."
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"The best arts organizations are the ones that are simultaneously completely committed to the aesthetic adventure of it all and to the community in which they are working," the director of the Columbia Arts Initiative, and a former artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater, Gregory Mosher, said." I couldn't agree more. We really couldn't do theater without the people in the community. Who would we be presenting it for? I think a large chunk of what we do is for the people it will directly affect. I would also encourage arts organizations to branch out into the communities and do shows pertainging to all walks of life, not just the ones that come and see them. Audiences can always get bigger; we just have to find a way to connect. And I think thats exactly what this particular theater, Harlem Stage, will be doing.
Being a native of NYC, this article especially appealed to me.
Harlem has such a terrible reputation when it comes to the arts (among other things). It was one of the most thriving cultural scenes in the beginning of the last century and the idea that some of the arts is coming back is very exciting.
The idea of tieing the building's original purpose of "showcasing" new water technology to showcasing theater is also an amazing idea. This brings together the present and future of the space with its past. This seems incredibly important for the teater's survival in a community, such as Harlem, where change for the better is not always viewed as a good thing.
-Natasha Alejandro
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