Mod on the Quad


Both Syracuse University and SUNY Oswego employ arts presenters to bring culture to campus


By Wu Xueying I


t is not unusual for universities to bring musicians, visual artists, poets and danc- ers to their campuses to enrich student


life. Columbia University in New York, for example, offers original and daring perfor- mances of new music in its 688-seat, on- campus Miller Theatre. At its Palace The- ater for the Performing Arts, Colgate Uni- versity in Hamilton offers a ticketed series of musical and theatrical events throughout the school year.


Syracuse University and SUNY Oswego


are also in the arts presenting business. While the programs use different approaches to infuse the arts into campus life, each is led by a dynamic arts presenter: Carole Brzozowski at Syracuse and Mary Avrakotos at Oswego. Avrakotos has been coordinator of ARTS-


wego for the past 10 years. Brzozowski was appointed SU’s arts presenter in 2008. Avrako- tos is more traditional in her approach, produc- ing a series of events and pushing the arts into the curriculum. Brzozowski has been focused on bringing artists to campus who often com- mit to short residencies and workshops that engage students in the creative process. “My job is to find artists who are new to Syracuse and who are interesting not just to me but also


to a wide variety of people,” Brzozowski says. Avrakotos has her roots in business, com-


bining her love of the arts with her manage- ment skills. With a degree in anthropology from New York University, Avrakotos got her first job in the National Museum of African Art in Washington D.C., and then in the devel- opment office of the Textile Museum. After moving with her husband to Oswego,


she became the founding director of Harbor- fest, the wildly popular summer event. Under her five-year leadership, Harborfest grew from a seedling to 300,000 visitors. But the job was so time-consuming that Avrakotos eventually decided to step down. She then established her own public relations and events planning firm with a friend but after a few years decided the profits did not match the effort involved. Then she came to work at SUNY Oswego. “Marketing and public relations are kind


of second nature to me,” Avrakotos says. “I know how to market things.” She has actively applied her marketing skills to the job of arts presenter. At the start of the school year, she had already designed the posters, prepared the postcards, sent out e-mails and readied an advertising campaign for her events. The 2010-2011 series offers great variety,


embracing tenor Nicholas Phan, the Quartet of Happiness, musicians from the Syracuse Sym- phony Orchestra, the Israeli Aviv Quartet, and the Gallim Dance group. She began the school year with a free performance by the renowned step-dancing group Step Afrika. Avrakotos has a strong sense of mission.


“Creativity is very important and it’s a core value,” she says. “It is not just important for people in art, but it’s also important if you’re in mathematics, or engineering, or business. What students learn from engaging in the arts goes well beyond the arts.” Avrakotos believes she has the responsibil-


ity to make sure the university is cultivating adults who are “imaginative in their approach to their lives and their work.”


OVERCOMING CHALLENGES Brzozowski’s training is both artistic and


academic. “I grew up knowing I had a beauti- ful voice and I could sing,” she says. From the stage as a performer, interacting with audiences, she witnessed the impact of the arts on people. “When I sing in church or on stage, I can look out and see the moment something’s changed.” Her long career as a staff member at the Col-


lege of Visual and Performing Arts at SU cul- minated in an eight-year term as dean. With the blessing of SU Chancellor Nancy Cantor, she chose to switch hats and become the university’s first arts presenter. In that role she has the same goal as a singer: create life-changing encounters for students with great art and artists. “To bring to campus artists who need support and who do really incredible work, that’s just as exciting for me as popping a high C in public.” Of all the performances Avrakotos has pre-


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sented, the oratorio in celebration of the life and work of Charles Darwin, titled The Ori- gin, was perhaps most significant. The project started in 2004 when the Grammy Award-win- ning composer Richard Einhorn presented the multimedia production “Voices of Light: The Passion of Joan of Arc” at SUNY Oswego and talked to Avrakotos about his idea to write a piece on Darwin’s life. Avrakotos raised the funds and brought the production to fruition. The piece was presented in 2009 in the 500- seat Waterman Theatre. Eighty of the 200 per- formers were students at SUNY Oswego. The year 2009 also proved to be a suc-


cessful one for Brzozowski. She brought to campus Shen Wei, the principal choreographer of the Beijing Olympics who was recognized as “one of the great artists of our time” by The Washington Post. In a lengthy residency Shen Wei developed and then presented a triptych entitled Re- in the Landmark Theatre. All SU freshmen and many faculty members attended, and much classroom discussion followed. In addition to Shen Wei’s art, Brzozowski


believes he introduced the subject of cultural diplomacy to the campus dialogue. Indeed, she says, people talked about Shen Wei for the whole year. “I would be in a grocery store and people would say: ‘You’re the one who brought Shen Wei, thank you!’ I never saw anything like that,” Brzozowski recalls. In the 2010-2011 season, students at SU will


benefit from a new partnership with the SSO. Music Director Daniel Hege has been hired as an adjunct professor by the School of Music. Brzozowski has also arranged for free concerts by the SSO on campus. “My role in the partnership,” Brzozowski says, “will be working with Daniel and faculty across the campus to find program- ming that meets the needs of the classroom.”


While their work is both vital and impres-


sive, it didn’t come easily. At Oswego, Avra- kotos has a budget provided by the Student Arts Fee of $135,000. She raises another $100,000 or so through grants, box office revenue, school participation fees and a 4 per- cent draw from a quasi-endowment operated through the Oswego College Foundation. The largest grant she has ever received is $95,000 from the New York State Music Fund for The Origin. Most grants are in the range of $4,000. Venue is another challenge. The largest


auditorium at Oswego is the Waterman Theater with 500 seats. “Say you’re trying to bring in Yo- Yo Ma,” Avrakotos says. “That would be very difficult to present because you can only sell 500 seats. If you’re talking about trying to sell enough tickets to offset the cost to bring some- body like that, it’s not possible with 500 seats.” Moreover, she doesn’t always get to use the


Waterman. “I can only book it after the theatre department and the music department,” she explains. Brzozowski faces challenges, too. The


budget she receives from the chancellor is only enough to support the day-to-day opera- tions of her office. For every project she needs to find separate funding. Further, she has no dedicated venue of her own, and no prospect for one in the near term. As a result, she has had to make her itinerant status into a virtue. “It’s really forced me and other people to look at the whole landscape and use pockets of the city and interesting boutique spaces in ways you wouldn’t have to do if we had the perfect auditorium,” she says. She is particularly excited about an event for


this coming year that capitalizes on the very absence of a dedicated performance space. “I can’t announce it yet, but I’ll tell you that it’ll happen in 10 to 12 different venues around the city over the course of a year.” Some of the venues will be on campus, but the real surprise will come when audiences see some of the per- formances in unexpected places. Avrakotos tries to engage the entire campus


through two particular initiatives. One is “Arts Across the Curriculum.” The college adopts an interdisciplinary artistic theme every other year that encourages the engagement of all departments on campus. The other is “Telling Tales: The Arts and


Discovery.” Supported by a generous planning grant from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, this two-year project intends to engage all SUNY Oswego students and fac- ulty members in the process of building a cre- ative campus. Five resident artists, including the Bessie Award-winning writer, composer, singer, and performer Cynthia Hopkins and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, will encourage students to explore the act of telling tales Avrakotos and Brzozowski have both


served on the board of the Cultural Resources Council and have become friends. They constantly compare notes. Both express a willingness to combine efforts to extend their reach. “Mary and I would be very interested in attempting a large-scale project to bring someone to our schools that neither alone can bring,” Brzozowski says. “I don’t know who that would be—maybe U2!”


Xueying Wu earned a bachelor’s degree in


English at the Beijing Foreign Studies Univer- sity. She is interested in animation and comics as an art form.


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