May 19, 2010
Culture, Community, and Urban Transformation
Larry Goldman
CEO, NJ Performing Arts Center
Minutes of the 33rd Meeting of the 68th Year
President George Hansen called the 33rd meeting of the 68th year of the Old Guard of Princeton to order at 10:15 in the Field Center. Don Edwards led us in the Invocation.
Dr. Hansen read the minutes of the meeting of May 12, 2010 when Dr. John Glod of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center spoke on the Ethics in Medical Research historically and today.
President Hansen named the 14 individuals who became members today, Tricia Marks, Charle Plohn, Ed Gaynor, Robert Vichnevetsky, Bob Williams, Frank Henschel, Jean Mahoney, Jules Richter, Terry Grabar, Bob Comizzoli, Dick Scribner, Mitch Selzer, Marue Wallizer, and Rosemary Walmsley, inviting those present to stand and receive a round of welcoming applause.
He reminded the audience that a meeting cancelled due to snow will take place next week. Gillett Griffin, retired curator of the Princeton University Art Museum will speak on “The Art of Collecting.”
He invited Ruth Miller to introduce the speaker on the topic, “Culture, Community, and Urban Transformation.”
Ruth Miller introduced Larry Goldman, the first and so far only President of the New Jersey Performing Art Center (NJPAC) in Newark. The non-profit NJPAC, a $187 million performing art center, opened in 1997 in the heart of downtown Newark on a 12-acre site. It includes the 2,750-seat Prudential Hall, the 514-seat Victoria Theater, a major plaza (Theater Square), and a 300-seat restaurant. She noted “if you have not been there, you are missing an incredible treat.” It is a beautiful facility that is easy to get to by NJ Transit or car. It attracts leading orchestras and performers from around the world.
Prior to joining NJPAC, Goldman was from 1980 to 1989 at Carnegie Hall where he became vice president responsible for overseeing the restoration and expansion of Carnegie Hall and development of the 60-story tower next door.
He holds both MPA and Ph.D degrees from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 2008, he was given the James Madison Award, the highest accolade Princeton can bestow upon a graduate alumnus.
NJPAC, Larry explained, was invented out of the fertile mind of another Princetonian, Governor Tom Kean. He loved the Arts and asked, “Why can’t New Jersey have a performing arts center of the equal of Lincoln Center?” Many sites were considered, but Carl Shaefer, a consultant, came up with a radical off-the-wall recommendation of placing it in the State’s biggest city, Newark. (Larry asked the audience if they remembered the concept of “progressive Republicans”?) Kean realized that this was too big an idea to be carried out by government alone, and he reached out to the private sector, specifically Ray Chambers, who had grown up in Newark. He had made a fortune in mergers and acquisitions with William Simon through their firm WesRay.
Ray Chambers put together a board of directors who raised the necessary funds for construction and provided governance for this entity. Chambers said that the private sector would match $21 million from the State to buy the 12 acres of land. And they did. (Larry noted, parenthetically and looking ahead, that close to $500 million has been raised to date.)
After a year as a consultant to the project, Larry was invited by Ray Chambers to take on the project full time. His father asked why, when he was sitting on top of the world in New York, would he go and “be buried in Newark”?
But Larry was not new to Newark. As a graduate student at Princeton in the Woodrow Wilson School focused on urban affairs, he worked in Newark in the summer of 1967 starting 14 days after the riots. He wrote a paper on Black Politics in Newark under Duane Lockhard, an encouraging professor. Ken Gibson was elected in 1970 as the first Black Mayor of Newark.
It became clear to Goldman, very quickly, that there was a double problem.
First, people who looked pretty much like those of us in this room saying, what a great idea to have a first-class performing arts center in Newark – Lincoln Center West – but if you think I’m going to Newark, you’re nuts!
The second problem was Newarkers said this is another suburban rip-off – it’s for rich white folks. What does it have to do with us?
It became clear both of these things had to be diffused head-on and dramatically to make this arts center work. They wanted to make NJPAC feel big enough and safe enough to attract the “Mozart and Beethoven” crowd from the suburbs. At the same time they wanted folks in Newark to feel that the art center was an intrinsic part of their lives.
The main point, Larry sought to make, was that what distinguishes NJPAC from 30 to 35 other art centers in America is the quality of the facility, which is architecturally beautiful and comfortable (he showed a spectacular image at night and another of the five-tier horseshoe interior of the great hall), but equally a home for indigenous Afro-Americans in Newark.
A series of strategies evolved to create an integrated diverse community from the design team, to the builders, to the staff (now 135 strong and fifty-fifty throughout). 46% of the thousand jobs for building the facility went to women and minorities. Transparency at every point had to prevail. So much of all building in Newark, since the riots, looks like a fortress. This design sought to throw its arms around the community, glowing from the inside-out.
It was a huge challenge to raise $187 million for the building. But of the four or five major arts centers built since not one came in under $350 million. In raising the money, it wasn’t so much the acoustics or the anticipated world-class programs, two thirds came from those who really cared about Newark, a Newark alumni club if you will. They saw NJPAC as the anchor, the revitalization engine for the City of Newark.
They sought to be mission-driven and market-sensitive with real customer service. The ushers are largely Afro-American women from Newark. They are paid, but not much. They come to downtown Newark for the camaraderie and a sense of being a part of something special.
The endorsement from the outset came from The New York Times, The New Yorker, Isaac Stern, who said the acoustics were great. The psycho-acoustics, too. Being in Prudential Hall was like sitting inside a cello with mahogany-stained cherry wood throughout.
One summer evening, long after the opening, Tom Kean was there for a concert by the New Jersey Symphony. He stepped out on the balcony and looked down on Theater Square to see 2,000 people enjoying the free music of three bands, inviting food you pay for, and one another’s company. It was a love fest. Tears welled into Kean’s eyes to see the transformation of his dream into reality.
When the art center obtained the 12-acre tract initially (Lincoln Center is 13 acres), the idea was that the art center would take responsibility for the design and development of that land. In the works now is a new 42-story residential tower with breath-taking views. Also planned is an upscale hotel and office building and a parking garage obscured from public view.
The future of art centers is to become the town square. To celebrate the Tenth Anniversary three years ago, the Big Apple Circus came. For the Inauguration of President Obama, a staffer came up with idea of watching the proceedings in Prudential Hall. But as an arts center with a social conscience, people had to bring food for the Food Bank to get in.
Larry reported, too, that a capital campaign was completed last year that raised $182 million for endowment and a reserve fund. Then he took some feisty and riveting questions.
President Hanson recognized three members of the Old Guard who had chaired committees for three years, Jerry Berkelhammer, Bill Walker, and Nick Van Dyke, by presenting them with OG patches for their blazers.
In closing the meeting President Hanson said that when authority changes in the military, the outgoing and incoming commanders meet on a parade field before all members of the command. Since the Old Guard’s symbol of authority is the gavel, he handed it to Bob Varrin with great pleasure to give it a good wrap ending the year. President Varrin accepted the gavel and closed the meeting of the 68th year with an estimated 127 present at 11:30.
Respectfully submitted,
Scott McVay
Dr. Hansen read the minutes of the meeting of May 12, 2010 when Dr. John Glod of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center spoke on the Ethics in Medical Research historically and today.
President Hansen named the 14 individuals who became members today, Tricia Marks, Charle Plohn, Ed Gaynor, Robert Vichnevetsky, Bob Williams, Frank Henschel, Jean Mahoney, Jules Richter, Terry Grabar, Bob Comizzoli, Dick Scribner, Mitch Selzer, Marue Wallizer, and Rosemary Walmsley, inviting those present to stand and receive a round of welcoming applause.
He reminded the audience that a meeting cancelled due to snow will take place next week. Gillett Griffin, retired curator of the Princeton University Art Museum will speak on “The Art of Collecting.”
He invited Ruth Miller to introduce the speaker on the topic, “Culture, Community, and Urban Transformation.”
Ruth Miller introduced Larry Goldman, the first and so far only President of the New Jersey Performing Art Center (NJPAC) in Newark. The non-profit NJPAC, a $187 million performing art center, opened in 1997 in the heart of downtown Newark on a 12-acre site. It includes the 2,750-seat Prudential Hall, the 514-seat Victoria Theater, a major plaza (Theater Square), and a 300-seat restaurant. She noted “if you have not been there, you are missing an incredible treat.” It is a beautiful facility that is easy to get to by NJ Transit or car. It attracts leading orchestras and performers from around the world.
Prior to joining NJPAC, Goldman was from 1980 to 1989 at Carnegie Hall where he became vice president responsible for overseeing the restoration and expansion of Carnegie Hall and development of the 60-story tower next door.
He holds both MPA and Ph.D degrees from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 2008, he was given the James Madison Award, the highest accolade Princeton can bestow upon a graduate alumnus.
NJPAC, Larry explained, was invented out of the fertile mind of another Princetonian, Governor Tom Kean. He loved the Arts and asked, “Why can’t New Jersey have a performing arts center of the equal of Lincoln Center?” Many sites were considered, but Carl Shaefer, a consultant, came up with a radical off-the-wall recommendation of placing it in the State’s biggest city, Newark. (Larry asked the audience if they remembered the concept of “progressive Republicans”?) Kean realized that this was too big an idea to be carried out by government alone, and he reached out to the private sector, specifically Ray Chambers, who had grown up in Newark. He had made a fortune in mergers and acquisitions with William Simon through their firm WesRay.
Ray Chambers put together a board of directors who raised the necessary funds for construction and provided governance for this entity. Chambers said that the private sector would match $21 million from the State to buy the 12 acres of land. And they did. (Larry noted, parenthetically and looking ahead, that close to $500 million has been raised to date.)
After a year as a consultant to the project, Larry was invited by Ray Chambers to take on the project full time. His father asked why, when he was sitting on top of the world in New York, would he go and “be buried in Newark”?
But Larry was not new to Newark. As a graduate student at Princeton in the Woodrow Wilson School focused on urban affairs, he worked in Newark in the summer of 1967 starting 14 days after the riots. He wrote a paper on Black Politics in Newark under Duane Lockhard, an encouraging professor. Ken Gibson was elected in 1970 as the first Black Mayor of Newark.
It became clear to Goldman, very quickly, that there was a double problem.
First, people who looked pretty much like those of us in this room saying, what a great idea to have a first-class performing arts center in Newark – Lincoln Center West – but if you think I’m going to Newark, you’re nuts!
The second problem was Newarkers said this is another suburban rip-off – it’s for rich white folks. What does it have to do with us?
It became clear both of these things had to be diffused head-on and dramatically to make this arts center work. They wanted to make NJPAC feel big enough and safe enough to attract the “Mozart and Beethoven” crowd from the suburbs. At the same time they wanted folks in Newark to feel that the art center was an intrinsic part of their lives.
The main point, Larry sought to make, was that what distinguishes NJPAC from 30 to 35 other art centers in America is the quality of the facility, which is architecturally beautiful and comfortable (he showed a spectacular image at night and another of the five-tier horseshoe interior of the great hall), but equally a home for indigenous Afro-Americans in Newark.
A series of strategies evolved to create an integrated diverse community from the design team, to the builders, to the staff (now 135 strong and fifty-fifty throughout). 46% of the thousand jobs for building the facility went to women and minorities. Transparency at every point had to prevail. So much of all building in Newark, since the riots, looks like a fortress. This design sought to throw its arms around the community, glowing from the inside-out.
It was a huge challenge to raise $187 million for the building. But of the four or five major arts centers built since not one came in under $350 million. In raising the money, it wasn’t so much the acoustics or the anticipated world-class programs, two thirds came from those who really cared about Newark, a Newark alumni club if you will. They saw NJPAC as the anchor, the revitalization engine for the City of Newark.
They sought to be mission-driven and market-sensitive with real customer service. The ushers are largely Afro-American women from Newark. They are paid, but not much. They come to downtown Newark for the camaraderie and a sense of being a part of something special.
The endorsement from the outset came from The New York Times, The New Yorker, Isaac Stern, who said the acoustics were great. The psycho-acoustics, too. Being in Prudential Hall was like sitting inside a cello with mahogany-stained cherry wood throughout.
One summer evening, long after the opening, Tom Kean was there for a concert by the New Jersey Symphony. He stepped out on the balcony and looked down on Theater Square to see 2,000 people enjoying the free music of three bands, inviting food you pay for, and one another’s company. It was a love fest. Tears welled into Kean’s eyes to see the transformation of his dream into reality.
When the art center obtained the 12-acre tract initially (Lincoln Center is 13 acres), the idea was that the art center would take responsibility for the design and development of that land. In the works now is a new 42-story residential tower with breath-taking views. Also planned is an upscale hotel and office building and a parking garage obscured from public view.
The future of art centers is to become the town square. To celebrate the Tenth Anniversary three years ago, the Big Apple Circus came. For the Inauguration of President Obama, a staffer came up with idea of watching the proceedings in Prudential Hall. But as an arts center with a social conscience, people had to bring food for the Food Bank to get in.
Larry reported, too, that a capital campaign was completed last year that raised $182 million for endowment and a reserve fund. Then he took some feisty and riveting questions.
President Hanson recognized three members of the Old Guard who had chaired committees for three years, Jerry Berkelhammer, Bill Walker, and Nick Van Dyke, by presenting them with OG patches for their blazers.
In closing the meeting President Hanson said that when authority changes in the military, the outgoing and incoming commanders meet on a parade field before all members of the command. Since the Old Guard’s symbol of authority is the gavel, he handed it to Bob Varrin with great pleasure to give it a good wrap ending the year. President Varrin accepted the gavel and closed the meeting of the 68th year with an estimated 127 present at 11:30.
Respectfully submitted,
Scott McVay