Action 2 Impact Podcast Season 2 EP.6 Why Community Arts Matter And How To Support Them

We get honest about why the arts feel easier to ignore than roads or schools and why that choice costs us empathy, creativity, and shared community life. Brian Rodolfo, president and CEO of The Cabot, explains how a historic theater stays open by blending commercial shows with mission-driven arts education, outreach, and affordable access. 
• the arts as a tool for empathy, creativity, and collaboration across every field 
• why arts funding gets politicized and how art “shines a light” on society 
• when shocking art works and when it feels empty 
• a practical definition of art as something that moves you and makes you think 
• Brian’s career path from lighting design to programming to CEO 
• The Cabot’s roots as a 1920 movie palace and vaudeville house 
• curated movie nights and the power of a shared audience experience 
• the economics of running a nonprofit community arts venue 
• access programs including Vet Tix and Massachusetts EBT Card to Culture 
• why big-name patronage looks quieter today and how smaller gifts add up 
• arts and science connections including dementia, autism, and music therapy research 
Check out the website. We’ve started a sponsorship program. It starts as easy as $3 a month, and it helps me get this show out there. If you’re interested in having the Action to Impact podcast and video cast come to your neck of the woods, be it your club, your assembly, your zone event, anything, Rotarianpod at gmail.com, message me. If you have somebody that you feel is turning their actions into impact, let me know. That same address, Rotarianpod at gmail.com.

Transcript

Welcome And Why Arts Matter

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi everyone, I'm Gwen Jones, and welcome once again to the Action Impact Podcast, the weekly podcast where I introduce you to amazing people from all over the world or right down the street turning their actions into impact. Well this week I get to talk to somebody from my very own rotary club. Why? Because we're talking the arts. Why? Because he's the president and CEO of The Cabot. Brian Rodolfo is joining me. Even though we still do the interview on too. Anyway, I digress. We're talking this week about the arts. Now, let's make it perfectly clear, I have had some wonderful artists on the show. Rotarians and let's just say brothers of Rotarians. Talking to you, Darren Jones. Anyway, we're gonna talk this week about the arts and how we need to fund them, and how we need to appreciate them, and how we need to experience them, and how we need to get in touch with our inner artists, along with learning about what it's like to run a community theater that has to have outreach all over New England and around the world. So join me, won't you? We're kicking out and talking about the arts with my friend Brian this week on the Action Impact Podcast. And as always, I'm awfully glad that you've joined me. Welcome back to the show, everybody. Well, a couple of years ago, I got some email saying that I did a show on arts, the arts, when I interviewed painter Darren Jones, and we got way geeky into way the arts. And so I'm getting geeky again. But this time it is with a Rotarian. His name is Brian Rodolfo, and he's from my club. So I didn't have to go very far at all, but he happens to be the president and CEO of The Cabot. Now, what is The Cabot? Because I'm talking to people all over the world. The Cabot is my local independent community theater that it was built in 1920. So it has had movies in it, it's had stage in it, it's had concerts in it. And in this time where the arts, I feel, are needed more than ever, but our perhaps our political situation isn't necessarily as friendly to the arts. I wanted to talk to another guy whose arts were his life, his vocation, as we say in Rotary. Ryan, welcome to the show. Thank you for a podcast about art.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Thank you for having me. I love to talk about the arts. I love to talk about the performing arts, and I really love to talk about the cabin.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Okay. So I love now one thing that I think is highly neglected in Rotary as a whole is how many performers and artists that we have, fine artists, culinary artists, you know, that we have in Rotary. And so I also do these shows because I think the arts are sometimes forgotten about. Do you think sometimes the arts are forgotten about?

SPEAKER_00 3:25

I think oftentimes the arts are forgotten about.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Or it's snooty. Or it's snooty.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

It's snooty. I'm kind of okay with the snooty designation. I've been accused. But um, but no, I think the importance of the arts, it goes so much deeper in that. It's it's it's where we learn empathy, it's where we learn how to work with other people, and it's where we would learn creativity. I mean, even if you're, you know, a scientist working in a lab, that ability to think kind of on your feet and outside of the box that the arts can teach you can be extremely beneficial to what you do. So the arts are important in in every field, not just for the sake of art. Although I uh have no problem with art for the sake of art either.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Right. So we hear there are two words here in in, I can't even say North America anymore, because we sometimes forget that Mexico, which is a country that is totally embraced as art. Even countries now like Saudi Arabia and Dubai are so getting into arts. So are we somehow kind of thinking that maybe in America there seems to be kind of a a stifling of the arts when the rest of the world is very art-friendly lately?

SPEAKER_00 4:58

I think without a doubt.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Really? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah, like right now, I mean, just you know, the the NEA's funding, although it ended up not getting cut, it was it was being threatened. The somehow the arts always gets tied into politics, which um it is called the liberal arts. The liberal arts. Well, and say, but that's the thing, right? So that there's this sort of this feeling that the arts is somehow a liberal or a leftist institution, and it's just it's not the case. But I think, you know, is it woke? I think that's kind of where the wokeness kind of comes from. But that's the job of the arts. It's to turn around and shine a light on society and say, hey, here's what we're seeing, here's the things that we need to be focusing on. And a lot of times those are progressive ideas, and and the arts are like I said, shining the light to bring that to the forefront. So I yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Is art supposed to shock you?

unknown 5:58

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Is art supposed to make you uncomfortable? Um I think it's there are certainly uh many performances I've been to where that is the purpose. Okay. I tend not to gravitate just personally too much for art for the sake of shocking as the main point. I prefer it when it has some other underlying meaning. Now that underlying meaning may be shocking, but I think sometimes, especially in the performing arts and theater, I've been to a number of shows where I just left feeling, well, clearly the director's point was to shock the audience and and and just, you know, get people out of their comfort zone, which is great and important, but not when you're doing that at the sake of the material. Right? The the material has an underlying meaning and definition, and you need to bring out the shocking moments within that art. And I think a lot of times choices can be made just for the sake of, oh, this could be a real gotcha, a real shocker. And I personally don't gravitate towards that. I don't mind when it's done in the context of the work that's being performed, whether it's dance, whether it's theater, even if it's just uh I shouldn't say just, but live, you know, interactive arts. You know, when you go to a performance art show, there needs to be something more beneath to kind of give meaning and context to the shocking moment.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Well, and I know art has always been used politically and religiously. You know, you go to the Sistine Chapel not only to see the beauty of it, but a pretty famous guy did a little bit of painting there. Okay. You know, you look, you go to Mexico City or you go to, you know, other places where art can be by, you know, Picasso. If you go to Madrid, you've got these world-famous artists that one could argue in their time were incredibly religious and or political. But now all these years later, they're just looked at as beautiful, magnificent pieces of art. In this time where art has been so spotlighted of being either good, bad, religious, not political. Yes. Are we gonna look in the future and come back to some of these pieces and go wow, that's just a beautiful brad or a beautiful blah blah blah. You know?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

I hope so. I mean, I have to say that right now I don't I think one of the things that we're kind of suffering from in the arts right now, especially in in the kind of theater that we do, and uh you had said that we're a community theater. I think I'd like to amend that a little bit and say, because for me that has a specific connotation of we do states, shows, you know, uh plays and we invite community members. Exactly. Okay, exactly. And I think I like to say we are the community's theater. So we're here to do much more than the arts, but but so much of it ends up being commercial, and it's hard for us to get support for the true art of it. You know, our bread and butter is rock and roll concerts. And and the and that's important, and that certainly is art in its own right, but to get people to come to a dance show, to get people to come to a play or to sit through a classical music concert is getting harder and harder. So I worry that the the pop art is really kind of the direction that we're headed. And I think that sends to be such sort of a snapshot of the times that I don't know how much staying power some of that's gonna have. And I also just look at, you know, there were times where, you know, the body of work just in general is growing exponentially. So it's so much harder for just because of modern technology, populations growing, there's just so much more of it out there. You look back to, you know, early music, early classical music. I mean, it was all centered around the liturgy, right? I mean, that's right, that's kind of what it was, and there wasn't a lot of people doing it. So that's what we still have from that time. And then it branches.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

There isn't too many menachis winning to flip the bill for artists these days.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Gotcha. Right, okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Right. But also just, I mean, it's so easy now for everybody to produce art, which is great. I mean, I'm not I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I think it's a great thing, but it does kind of just put this great body of work out there that it's gonna make it hard. You know, the things that stand out are gonna be extra extraordinary. Is that is that a saying? Is that can you say that? I like it. I like it.

What Counts As Art Anyway

SPEAKER_01 11:00

And we've been talking about art on a very grand scale. When we've hinted a little bit about religious heart art, we hinted a little bit about political art. But let me let me get this question out of the way. And you were like, don't give me any gotcha questions. Oh, yeah. What is art?

SPEAKER_00 11:20

What is art?

SPEAKER_01 11:22

I know it could be a podcast in itself, but what is art?

SPEAKER_00 11:25

That is a gotcha question. I mean, I definitely am a believer in that answer is gonna vary based on on the person that you're asking. And I mean that like quite literally, like I could look at something and say that's art. And you banana with duct tape on a yeah, exactly. Or, you know, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

If you guys don't know what that meant, look it up. There's literally a piece of art that sold of millions of dollars.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

That was millions of dollars.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Banana with the duct tape. Just look it up.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Well, and then you've got like Banksy, who you know had the the sold this painting for was it eight million dollars and shredded it.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

That was that, but I would say that more so than the actual painting. The shredding was the art in that moment. That was definitely a a gotcha moment done for shock value. But I think there was underlying art and meaning behind that, and it it it was part, I mean, that was what made the piece. So now this shredded canvas that you can sure it's hanging in the guy's house, paid eight million dollars for it or in a museum. That's now the art. But no, for me, art is anything that that moves you and and causes you to think, right? So you don't even have to like it. I would use the example when I was living in New York, I went to see an exhibit in a gallery, and it was kind of along the lines of the duct tape banana thing. There were various pieces of scrap plywood, and they were mounted on the wall at different heights, and there were like like one edge may have been painted blue, or there is maybe like a swoosh of paint across one. And I remember being mad when I left that exhibit.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

What the hell? That was 20 bucks.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Well, it was like I could do that, I could do that, yeah. But I didn't, and I paid to get into that, so and it it caused an emotion in me. I I had suspect it was actually the emotion that the artist was going for, but that's art, that's art, whether you know it's my kind of art, but yeah, so I really think that's what it is. It's anything that moves you and causes you to think. And it it makes for a wide category of it. You know, I look at modern marketing materials, some of that stuff is the best art that I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Right. And Andy Warhol will tell you that pop art put him on the map, a canvas soup, you know.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Exactly.

Brian’s Road To Theater Leadership

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah, yeah. So we've talked very broadly about art, and I'm not willing to put out into the universe that a Trump balloon dressed up in a baby diaper 60 years from now is going to be a work of art, but you never know. You never know. It'll be remembered, it'll be remembered. But let's trickle down a little bit. Tell me a little bit about you because I I I I know you're Rotarian and all that kind of stuff, and we talk a lot about all that kind of stuff. But one, you're a corporate Rotarian, which I think is very interesting. They cabinet joined Rotary as corporate.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

I suspect that was just so Jackie could get more money out of me.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Probably. Yeah. Shout out to Jackie for sure. But I they don't really have a position in in college to I'm gonna be the president and CEO of a of a small theater in Beverly, Massachusetts. I mean, what is what is how do you become a how do you how do you get to be in charge of an ultimate arts playhouse?

SPEAKER_00 15:03

So my my journey has been very different from most. There is a degree that you can get fairly recently in arts administration. And so so you can go that route and you know, you know your intent the entire time is I'm going to be an arts administrator. But I find not a lot of people follow that path. I think there was a time maybe 20, 30 years ago, where, at least in the performing arts world for big performing arts centers, it was kind of that empresario model. It was somebody who, you know, had the grand vision for what the product on stage was going to be. And it was really kind of mission-driven that way. And then we started building these huge performing arts centers all over the country. And they're very expensive to build, they're very expensive to run. So more and more we moved away from that empresario kind of model to the Carnegie Halls of the world.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

And right. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Exactly. And but we moved into really a development-driven world. So it became the fundraisers that became the CEOs of these large organizations. So that is not at all the world that I came from. My degree is actually in lighting design. I was a designer for the stage. I did that for a while, realized there probably wasn't a hugely lucrative career in that. So I moved over into production management. So I worked with Broadway Across America. I managed all of their venues and all their shows for them in South Florida and a couple other venues around the country. And I was a technical director of a small little 300-seat theater, very similar to the Cabot, a building that was going to be torn down. A group of citizens came in and rescued it and made it a performing arts center. I did that for a while while I was doing that. I was working with architects on the side to actually design and build theaters and theater systems because they're, I mean, they're very specific buildings, and it, you know, you kind of have to work in them to know what needs to go in there. You know, why do you need 1200 amps of electric service? That makes no sense, but you do. And so I would I did that for a long time. And then my wife and I had our little girl, and I was working, not exaggerating, 110, 120 hours a week, like 16-hour days for you know a month at a time. And I said, I'm not going to, I'm not going to miss my daughter growing up. I can't do this anymore. So I was fortunate enough to be at a place where just right place, right time kind of a thing. There was programming position that opened up. Programming in the in this sense means picking the shows, negotiating the contracts with the agents, kind of designing the artistic mission. It's kind of like what the Empresarios would have done. So I fell into that in a small theater. I got a call from a friend of mine who ran the Kravis Center or ran the programming department at the Kravis Center, which is in Palm Beach, the big performing arts center in Palm Beach. And he had asked me if I'd be willing to move over and work with him to program there. I said absolutely. I thought that's where I was going to retire. He was going to retire in a few years, and I was going to take over, and that's it. But while I was there, I got an offer to be the vice president of programming at a big performing arts center, the Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina. Beautiful place. And I said, well, here's this opportunity to step into the VP slot now. So I made that move. I did that for about six years, and I decided I want to sit in the big chair. Like I really, you know, want to set direction. Exactly. Big chair, little theater. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

So I want to set direction. I want to, you know, be able to influence the education programs and the outreach programs. And more so than just what shows are happening on our stage. It's very hard nowadays to make that move into the CEO role from a programming position. As I mentioned earlier, they tend to come from development. So I got a phone call about uh the CEO position at the box center, the big theater in Boston. And I said, Well, there's no way I'm actually going to get that job. That's not your first CEO role, but I'm going to keep an eye on who does get it. And it just so happened that the gentleman, Casey Sower, that preceded me here, got that role. And so I started paying attention to the cabin. And just randomly, someone I've known for a long time had the search for this position and called me. And now here I sit in the big chair, little theater. I was at the venues I was at before. We all we had multiple theaters, the biggest being like 2200 seats, going down to 300. My last venue, I had six different venues. So here at the Cabot, I've got two 850 seats and 120 seats, but both great venues. And we do lots of great stuff.

The Cabot And Movie Palace History

SPEAKER_01 20:27

So I one thing I found very interesting about the Cabot is that it was built for stage production. A lot of the beautiful quote-unquote theaters that we have outside of New York are usually some of these fantastically ornate movie theaters or movie houses of the 1920s. I had the honor when I was in my 20s to work at the Fifth Avenue Theater, which is modeled off of the Chinese Emperor's throne room. So not only look up the cabot, but look up the Fifth Avenue Theater. And it was a movie theater, it was a silent movie theater. So it so when it was going to either be torn down, which just seems like sacrilege, because I think of theaters like that as almost churches. I mean, they're absolutely gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

They are churches for some of us.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

For some of us, exactly. So then it is now a live performance theater. But the cabin's rather old school. It was built for stage.

unknown 21:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Well, no, so it was actually built as a movie house, but it was also movie house, yeah. It was a movie house, but it was also the vaudeville house. So it was kind of dual purpose. Yeah, it was dual purpose. Built in the silent film era, and but but you know, a stage for vaudeville acts to come and perform. A number I like to share with people, because this is mind boggling to me, is at one time there were 20,000 of these movie palaces throughout the country. There's just over two.

unknown 22:00

Now.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

So and they're all yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

What wait, wait, wait. 20,000 of like my beloved Fifth Avenue and the Cabot.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

From and yeah, from every scale. So the the the Cabot is kind of a mid-size one at 850 seats. There's some like, oh, I think like Fifth Avenue would be one. How many seats is that?

SPEAKER_01 22:23

It was just about it when it was totally full, about a thousand. Yeah, so it's not very big. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

But I know, well, like the the Wang Theater in in Boston was one. Um, Radio City was one, it's 6,000 seats. The Wang was 3,000 seats. But then they went down to like we have the Larkham, which is right around the corner from us. Beverly is lucky enough to have two historic movie palaces here, but the Larkham seats 500, 550. So, you know, they were built at every scale, but they're all just beautiful inside. We just don't build venues like this anymore.

Bringing Movies Back As Events

SPEAKER_01 22:56

So, because I would love it. You do show movies there. We do show that. And there are many of these movie palaces that show movies. And now that a lot of our quote unquote modern movie theaters are shuddering, they're down. I mean, because most people is there perhaps an opportunity not only for the stage, but for some movies to start recreating times of old and bringing people back into movie theaters, but the movie theaters are the show palaces?

SPEAKER_00 23:34

I think that's what you're gonna end up seeing, which is it's it's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

So a renaissance almost in a way.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

So a renaissance, uh, specifically of these old movie palaces, um, like the cabinet, because most of us that are still operating tend to do diverse programming. So many of them are not just film. There's they're film and live performance, but it's that live performance that really keeps the doors opened. And so we have the ability to show movies, whereas these multiplex theaters, the product just isn't out there anymore. It's really expensive. Things spend a week or two weeks in the theaters and then go to Netflix. But we have the opportunity, because we don't have to maintain these, you know, 18 screens, to really select the movies that we want to show and and curate it for an audience to come in and have that shared experience. I don't care how elaborate your home setup is, and and I'm guilty. I mean, I kind of have one. It is different when you're sitting in the theater. Lines just land funnier when there's other people laughing at them with you. And we were lucky enough this past November, there was the Ken Burns uh Revolutionary War up series that he did. So that aired live on PBS with a new film every night or a new you know episode every we showed them live at the cabin. We were the only ones in the country that showed them live.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

And why?

SPEAKER_00 25:06

That's well, that's thanks to the Beverly Historic Society and Abby Battis, who basically had a relationship with Ken. Um, a lot of the Beverly Uh Historic Society, a lot of the photos, I should say, that were in that series came from the Historic Society. So they had this relationship, and and Abby approached us and we said, absolutely, we want to do that. So that was Abby's.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

From this area, it's like, I have this great movie house. Why don't I do it there?

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Exactly. But sitting and watching, and you know, we had great crowds for that. We had some people that were there every single night, and these were eight o'clock to ten o'clock, you know, on weekdays. And there were lines getting history lessons. Exactly, exactly. But there were certain things that happened in some of the episodes that I laughed out loud that I know I would not have laughed out loud if I was sitting at home and watching it with you know just my wife or just by myself. So it's that shared experience.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

And we are in New England, so I do know that every single summer, and this year I am finally in town. We are not that far away from Martha's Vineyard and the and the Cape and Cape Cod. That's where they filmed Jaws. So I think it is really fun that every single year the Cabot does a showing of Jaws because it's right around the corner.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Yeah, we actually we do two because it was so popular. We do two screenings of it, one just for members, because some of the members were kind of getting shut out. So we said, all right, we'll do a special member showing, and then we do one for the public.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

That's what I'm saying. We're talking about a 50-year-old movie that we're selling, you know. I don't think we're selling both theaters out, but we're selling, you know, 600 tickets to each showing. So that well, it's free for members, but for the other one, we're selling the tickets.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Yeah, but there's some there's some movie theater guys who may be listening to this podcast all over the United States that would love to be showing again and again, guaranteed 600, some odd people in their multiplexes.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Exactly. But I think that you nailed it though. I mean, that movie was filmed, you know, not too far from here, and it has a special meeting for people, you know, on in New England on the coast. Right. And so I don't know that that would work in South Florida, but here people love it and they come year after year.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

So are the arts in good shape? Or I mean, I know I asked this question now, but I know there's probably at the beginning, but I know there's gotta be some people going, hmm. When was the last time I actually went and saw some art? Right. When was it? So maybe I should ask the question, is it possible for the arts to be in good shape?

SPEAKER_00 28:03

So the arts are always gonna need money. They're always gonna need those, you know, special patrons that are the arts. Exactly. Exactly. And I'm not just pitching for the Cabot, please support your local arts associations and arts groups. But I mean, so there's there's groups like the Cabot and the big performing arts centers where we're very well able to self-sustain. Like I said, we've got the live performances, we do the concerts of things that kind of make money that allow us to do the more education outreach, what I call mission-based program, the more cultural program. We still need support, but we're able to carry on through rough times. But a lot of the smaller organizations just aren't. I look at symphonies in particular, huge payrolls and and losing interest in in the particular art form. So I mean, I think to answer your question, it depends on what sector we're talking about. Um are the arts healthy. But also, you know, the arts certainly live and die by how the economy is going. It's kind of a weird juxtaposition in that, you know, at times where people need the arts the most and they need a diversion and to be taken away from from their world, that's when they have the the least discretionary income to do it, to, you know, to to buy a ticket to a show, to go see that movie. You know, when we're worried about gas being$5 a gallon,$75 for a concert ticket all of a sudden seems like a luxury that maybe it didn't a month ago. Right. Um so I think I mean there's always going to be an appetite for the arts. There's always gonna be people that that are there to support and people that want to go and and and take what we offer. But there's certainly hard times ahead. And and like you said, we're on the one hand, we get a little boost because the people that have tend to look for more escapism. But on the other hand, we lose a good portion of people who are able to come out and make it. We try and do everything we can to make tickets affordable. We donate a ton of tickets to VetTicks, which gives free tickets to veterans. We participate with the Massachusetts EBT Carta Culture. So if you have you receive EBT benefits, you can come for us and get extremely discounted tickets, if not free tickets, to shows that we offer. And these are our mainstream shows, they're not just the ones that aren't selling. We don't we don't do it for every single show.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

You might even squeeze me into Jaws. Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

We don't do it for every single show because sometimes the deals that we have to make with the artists and the agents are just prohibitive and we can't get it in there. But we do try to get it into most. But yeah, I mean, I think the bottom line is support your arts, support your local artists. Even if that doesn't mean donating, if it just means buying a ticket, buy the ticket.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

And I should say also don't limit what you what you believe art is.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

Try something anything, try something new. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

I've always wanted to start a series that's well, this is a podcast that's gonna go out wide, so I'll amend what I really want to call it. But I want to call it the the just blanket just blanket trust me shows. Yeah. To where, you know, I will book shows that I guarantee you you will have an amazing time. And it's probably gonna be something you would never think to buy a ticket to. But come buy a ticket and and experience this. We actually had a program like this when I was at the Kravis Center, and it was called Peak, Provocative Entertainment at Kravis. But it was we offered$5 tickets to different community groups, and we would basically give those tickets out, and you would come see shows like I don't know, it could be, I don't know, Urban Bush Women, who's a dance company out of New York, great company. It could be, there's this great uh group called Dhaka Braka out of the Ukraine that does traditional Ukrainian music, but they kind of put a modern spin on it. Things that nobody's gonna buy a ticket to, but the people who came to see them come back to every other show that we offer in that series because they're just so great. So you it's just you know, expand your horizons. And I get we need to make it accessible. I'm not gonna ask you to spend$50, but five, take take a chance.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Take a chance. I remember years ago, a friend of mine said, we're gonna go see the toco drums. And I'm like, it's a whole bunch of like guys in loincloths banging on large drums. This is what I want to go see. It was mind-blowing. It's an ancient Japanese drumming art, and I'm like, okay. And now, whenever I see that there's one in town, I'm like, oh, we're going.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Yeah, no, it's amazing. You just literally feel it when they have that show. The big bass drums reverberate through your body.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

They're awesome. All right, so I got two more questions for you, and I'll let you get back to the to the art world.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

So the first one I find very interesting. Right now in North America, throughout Europe, and of course in the Middle East, there are some of by far the wealthiest people we've ever known in our lifetime. And a lot of people compared it to the Gilded Age here in the United States or the Age of Kings in Europe and others. But there was, even if you go back to Roman time, a kind of thread and circus. Like, I'm going to pay for the arts to keep the people happy. And then in the Gilded Age, that gave us the Metropolitan. That gave us, you know, everything from the art at Grand Central Station to Carnegie Hall and Rockefeller Center. If those, you know, those names were because they're built by the people.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

You know, the Guggenheim. So it's really very easy. Right now, I don't see the Bezos Center of the Performing Arts or the But you see the Trump Center. Well, no.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Well, okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

No politics. And that can easily a little crazy glue removal, take that down. But I but it is but it is true. I mean, Trump has always been a brander, but we don't we know that the king of England right now makes sure that he has arts and arts education throughout the kind of things. But we have and and I guess one of the most magnificent art museums is going up in Dubai and Saudi Arabia and different things. But we have multi-b billionaires out there, and we don't have the new Met. We don't have the new Carnegie Hall. Is that just not going to happen? Is it just not important anymore?

SPEAKER_00 34:59

I don't know that it happens on that same scale anymore, but I mean it certainly happens. And it's something that I find very interesting is that this kind of varies region by region. Like I always joke, it'd say in Palm Beach, I don't know if I should say this. I'm gonna say it anyway. In Palm Beach, it was kind of easy to raise money. You just had to go to someone and say, hey, your neighbor just gave me$5,000 and we put their name on this thing and they'd write you a check for$10,000.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Right. Hence why we have the Met as opposed to the Metropolitan. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

Exactly. But I will tell you, in Greenville, South Carolina, our major donors didn't want their name on buildings. I find that a lot here in New England too. So we get money from people, but they don't necessarily want it out there wide. So people people are certainly giving, but I don't know that anymore they're giving the you know$100 million to build the the next Met. They donate to programs, they donate to people. So where we get, you know, we got a lot of capital contributions to to renovate the facade of the cabin, well, and just the building in general. It's over$10 million over the course of 10 years. So and I can think of lots of examples of things like that. But but also we get, you know,$25,000 from various organizations to run our in focus, our uh student film program, money to for the we have uh Kids at the Cabot, like a family series that we do. We get money donated towards that. So you don't always necessarily see the huge checks that are being transacted. There's lots of of of smaller donations that are kind of happening sometimes behind the scenes. And even if we do brand it with somebody's name that it's sponsored by, like that's all they want. They don't want it to be big and huge out there. So no, I mean, while I definitely The showing off is just we just don't show off anymore. We just don't show off that much anymore. And I mean, and is there a certain amount of people just kind of holding on to their wealth? I think so, or investing in other areas, like you mentioned Bezos. I think Jeff Bezos certainly spends a lot of money, not so much on the arts, but he's trying to blast us off into space.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Is maybe he's gonna put an art museum on the moon.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

Maybe he's gonna put an art museum on the moon. But the flip side of that is that his ex-wife is donating millions and millions of dollars all around the country quietly. Like you've probably not even heard about this. But there was oh, I can't think of who it was, but there was a local group here on the North Shore that I think just got half a million dollars from her. So there's lots of cool.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

So the grand, so it's still happening, not just the the grandioso.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, but the Gates Foundation gives lots of money out and Warren Buffett. I mean, people certainly give.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

Well, and on the other side, the next time that you that you cringe for walking into Walmart or you love Walmart, I think one of the families that's responsible for a lot of the indigenous and or folk art in the United States are the Waltons.

SPEAKER_00 38:14

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

People that gave you Walmart, the wall part of Walmart are investing millions, if close not to billions of dollars in folk art from all over the world.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

To keep keep the folk art alive.

Arts, Autism, Alzheimer’s, And Healing

SPEAKER_00 38:32

It's it's out there and it's happening. There's still that spirit of giving that happens, it's just quiet. Um people don't like to show off on it. Uh and it could just be because they don't want to be inundated by a hundred other people getting in line. But whatever the reason, as long as it keeps coming, as long as it keeps coming, all right.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

Last but not least, there have been some amazing studies that have come out on the arts and autism and the arts and Alzheimer's. And we're not trying to do a whole A episode here, but it is really, you know, it is fascinating how the arts are helping people get their memory back, helping autistic children stay focused, people with uh verbal issues like stuttering once they sing, that stuttering is gone. I know I am dyslexic, and so music or patterns was always made it much easier for me to learn. So there's all of this around art and the science of art and your brain reacting to art. Is that an avenue that could really help the arts? Could quote arts and sciences really start to be the savior of arts in the in our next years?

SPEAKER_00 39:57

So, in fact, there's there's a lot of people that are actually working on this. Renee Fleming, the brilliant soprano, has an organization called Music in the Mind. And she'll actually she'll come in, she'll like if she's coming in for a performance, she'll do the night before or the night after. She'll do a program where she'll work with local doctors, and it's really focusing on you mentioned Alzheimer's, like Alzheimer's dementia, specifically on music's ability to heal those things. But she also encourages people during that to, you know, this is my area of focus, but you find yours. And you know, you can work towards, you know, whether it's autism, whether it's, you know, whatever ailment that you choose to adapt your art to help that. I could think of uh another uh gentleman, his name is Kevin Spencer, a magician, who actually retired from touring, had a very successful career as a magician, retired from touring, got his PhD in neurology, maybe. I don't remember. But anyway, he's got this incredible program where he uses magic. He goes into schools and he works with schools to develop curriculum to work with autistic kids to get them out of their gel. So, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of different places where this happens. I have another friend who's a great pianist and and a composer, and she has a program where she works with autistic kids. So, and it's it's all about, yeah, I mean, so it's happening, it's out there. And I think the scientific community definitely has latched onto it because it works, right? Because it works.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

Therapy, you've got people, you know, all different types of things.

SPEAKER_00 41:36

Yeah, but what do you need to see in science? Results, and they're seeing results. So it's, you know, just spinning off more and more research.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

So I asked you in the very beginning how heart, how art is doing. I asked you kind of in the middle how art is doing. And now after I've asked you every single question, is is it the last thing to say is the arts are where we want them to be and will stay in good shape, but it's totally up to us. Is that kind of a synopsis of what this all is?

SPEAKER_00 42:09

I think that is accurate. It it really is. It's that last part of that. It's it's up to you, right? I mean the arts can thrive, but but you have to support them. And again, I'm not talking about just writing a check. Go to go participate, try something new, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:26

Get you know, get pissed off if you don't like the art. At least you're doing something.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

That's it. Dude, you're you're you're showing that there is a need and there's a desire for it. If you don't have the the financial wherewithal to write that check, even if it's a free event, just showing up at that event shows that there's an uh there's a desire to continue these programs and there's a need for it, and we can figure out how to get the funding on the other side. But if nobody's showing up, don't sweat the small stuff. Yeah. Nobody exactly. If nobody's showing up, then we're not gonna get the funding. And that's kind of, you know, that's how they go away. Try something new, try something different. Go and there's lots of great programs out there that are very inexpensive to kind of get your feet wet. I know I had mentioned classical music, uh, orchestra, symphonies are really struggling right now. Many of them have great programs where you can go and have cocktails and bites, and they'll play some music and they'll talk a little bit about what's going on. And they're just great experiences. And it's just and it's broadening for you. I mean, I think, you know, unless it's the specific intent of the show, how many times do you leave a show sad? Right.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Have more of an artful life, right?

SPEAKER_00 43:42

That's it. An artful life.

Support Local Arts And Final Notes

SPEAKER_01 43:44

An artful life. Please do, Brian. So honored to have you on the show. It was a blast. And thank you again, keeping keeping arts alive. And uh, you know, I obviously I'll see you at the cabot because you You know, through disclosure, I am an usher, that's a cabin. So I just signed up for three more shows. I don't get paid, by the way. I get free shows. So hey.

SPEAKER_00 44:13

Right. Well, that's also, I mean, it's so in addition, it goes volunteer in an arts organization.

SPEAKER_01 44:17

Yeah, that's what I did.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

Yeah. It's I mean, it's a lot of fun. You get to meet new people, and um, it's just it's a great thing to do with your time.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

Yeah, why not? Thank you, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

All right, thank you so much, Gwen.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

Go out, spend a day of it, go out, see art, volunteer at art, like me. I'm an usher. Uh, when I travel, truth be known, I always make sure that even though I might want to be walking on the beach or laying in the sun or flopping in a pool with my grandson, I always try and fit in some type of art, some type of music, some type of cultural emergence to where I am, be it around the world or right down the street. Art is important. Art is us. And art throughout history is what we will be remembered for. Art. Art. Time to have an artful life, don't you think? Well, as always, I thank you for joining Brian and I in the conversation, and I thank you for either watching our show or listening to our show, or we even have a blog about the show. I added all these things so people all around the world could hear these great stories. Our video cast alone on YouTube comes in 30 different languages. And how do I do this? Well, to tell you the truth, it takes a little bit of funds. So this is when I say, hey, check out the website. We get to do all of this because of listeners and viewers like you. So yes, I understand that sounds like that other station, and we love them and they need funding too. But my broadband has gotten bigger the more popular this show has begun. So we've started a sponsorship program. It starts as easy as$3 a month, and it helps me get this show out there. So check it out, won't you? And the other fun thing is, I'm on the road. I have all the equipment now to take this podcast to an event, a conference, assembly, anything you'd like. So check us out. I mean, we're still a little bit rusty at it, but we're getting the idea, we've got the equipment, and we can only get better the more we're on the road. So if you're interested in having the Action to Impact podcast and video cast come to your neck of the woods, be it your club, your assembly, your zone event, anything, Rotarianpod at gmail.com, message me. I'm on WhatsApp, I'm on all the social platforms, check it out. And of course, last but not least, if you have somebody that you feel is turning their actions into impact, let me know. That same address, Rotarianpod at gmail.com. Enough advertising. Until next week. Take care of yourself and the world around you, and we'll hear you or see you or read you next time on the Action to Impact family of programs. Until next week.