Testimonials
The Greenwich Center for the Arts has attracted the support and enthusiasm of numerous neighbors, local arts organizations and noted experts from the arts world.

In 1894, my great-grandfather gave Greenwich the money to build a school, which became known as the Havemeyer School. Apparently, he had spent a great part of his childhood (his mother died at a young age) in Greenwich with George and Hannah Elder, who were very close family friends. He made this gift to the town he had spent a lot of time in and he was a strong proponent of education. I'm told that the building remained a school until 1948, when it was converted to house the Board of Ed.

I think it would be terrific if your efforts to convert that building to an arts/performing arts center were successful, and I think all of his descendants would approve of such a worthy adaptive reuse and restoration. I noticed that you are using Peter Gisolfi and he really knows his stuff -- with him, you have the best!

Good luck with your important efforts.

Bill Havemeyer
New York City

I want to applaud you on your excellent business plan for the Greenwich Center for the Arts. All of us in the arts are challenged by the difficulty of finding space for rehearsals, performances and creating art. Your plan for the GCA addresses these important issues head on. I can only imagine how significant your plan will be for local arts groups.

In reading through the business plan you developed, I was struck by how thoroughly you have thought through the issues. I know from personal experience that you have consulted with a lot of different people who are engaged in art presentation and production. As you move forward with this important project, please let me know if there is anything that I can do to help.

Nigel Redden, Director
Lincoln Center Festival, New York City
Spoleto Festival, Charleston, North Carolina

The Greenwich Arts Council, now in our 35th year of providing arts for Greenwich and lower Fairfield County, enthusiastically supports the creation of a new, state of the art facility in downtown Greenwich as proposed by the Greenwich Center for the Arts in the Havemeyer Building.

The mission of the Greenwich Arts Council is to promote the arts by nurturing artists and building audiences, bringing the arts to the community and the community to the arts. . Our programs affect thousands of people each year, and our awards programs (Artist Laureate, Architectural Design, Patron of the Arts) recognize extraordinary achievements and outstanding contributions to the arts in our community.

To that end, the Greenwich Arts Council supports any artistic endeavor that joins with us to improve the quality of life for our friends and neighbors in Greenwich. We look forward to bringing our multi-disciplinary arts programs, gallery shows, services, and educational outreach to the new facility and to continuing annual events such as Art to the Avenue, the New GAC Pops Concert Series, Literary Lights, Play With Your Food and our Youth@Art/Student Docent Program, to the new facility now proposed as the Center for the Arts.

Emily Ragsdale, President
Greenwich Arts Council

As a musician, I am delighted with your organization's plans to create a center devoted to the arts. I believe that a community and a society's art is its soul. We need to create a platform for all of the arts in Greenwich, with the understanding that such organizations increase nationwide appreciation and growth of the arts.

Especially with music, if we can expose children at an early age, particularly to improvised music, it will give them skills that will help them in anything they do in later life.

Art forms nourish the community, and so I believe that the community should embrace the proposed Greenwich Center for the Arts. I am honored to lend my support to this endeavor.

Bennie Wallace
Jazz Saxophonist, Greenwich

I thank you for taking the time to explain future plans for an anticipated Arts Center. I can now see why so many people are so excited about the project. We would be happy to support you moving forward with any of your security needs, or serve on any advisory board you deem necessary. Good luck with the project.

Police Chief David Ridberg
Greenwich Police Department

From School, to Offices, to … Town Arts Center?
One cannot say no to Bea Crumbine and Bennie Wallace regarding the Greenwich Center for the Arts and so I recently toured the Havemeyer Building, which we hope will be the home for the multi-arts center.

The Havemeyer Building, a gift to the town in 1892 from Henry and Louisine Havemeyer, would be modernized, while preserving the architectural integrity of the original historic structure, with park land accessible to all. GCA would pay all costs of the renovation and ongoing operations, and conduct a capital campaign. The Town would save an estimated $500,000 per year in operating costs. The intention is to forge a true public/private partnership for the benefit of the entire community.

I wonder how the parents of the Havemeyer School those many years ago would have reacted today? I suspect that they might have wanted to "do for their town", to paraphrase President Kennedy's famous speech.

Norma Bartol, Greenwich
Columnist, Greenwich Time

Imagine a central umbrella for the arts, where cultural experiences are shared and exchanged, where artists of all disciplines come together and a new energy and pulse is created. Herein lies a new form of partnership with collaboration and momentum. In my minds eye, the Greenwich Center for The Arts, in all its possibilities, will be not only attractive, but also necessary to all the members of a community such as Greenwich. When possibilities become a reality, the benefits are untold!

Barbara Netter
Greenwich

As Brunswick School renovates our Upper School campus to better meet the needs of our students, a central focus will be a new arts center that will include a theater, music and fine arts classrooms as well as a student/faculty art gallery.

Community-wide interest and participation in all forms of the arts has risen exponentially. As much as we'd like to, it is clear that Brunswick will be unable to accommodate all of the requests we receive from the community for the use of both local performing arts groups and performances that could be brought to Greenwich.

For this reason, I fully support the proposed Greenwich Center for the Arts. The advantages of a facility fully dedicated to the practice, teaching and displaying of all the arts, including music, dance, graphic design, sculpture, pottery and painting, will benefit all Greenwich citizens.

Thomas W. Philip
Headmaster
Brunswick School

"I support the concept of the Greenwich Center for the Arts and believe that it could be a wonderful place for the entire community to enjoy and participate ina full range of the arts."

Dr. Ernest Fleishman
Former Greenwich Superintendent of Schools

As a former Greenwich resident, I am so impressed by and excited about the proposal for the Greenwich Center for the Arts. Greenwich, which boasts numerous patrons of the arts as well as both professional and amateur artists among its residents, should be leading the way in supporting the arts and in arts education. The coordination among current arts groups and new offerings that this site will provide are a big step in the right direction.

Stuart Adelberg, Bea Crumbine, Marvin Berenblum and others who have founded the organization have long been active in the arts and civic work in Greenwich, and know very well whereof they propose! I applaud their efforts and am eager to see the fruits of their hard work come to life.

Given the state of today's world, what could be more important?

Sandy York
Greenwich

As the Artistic Director of a new Greenwich-based classical music organization, I would like to express my views in favor of the creation of the Greenwich Center for the Arts. Such a Center would enhance the ambiance of downtown Greenwich by bringing warmth, artistic diversity and vitality to the area.

Such an Arts Center would enable organizations such as ours to have a home base for administrative and production operations. By providing such a home for local arts organizations, the Center would serve the interests of the many Greenwich residents who participate or would like to participate in such organizations and the many more residents who would benefit from the cultural activities the organizations would offer.

Ida Angland
Artistic Director
Gateway Classical Music Society, Inc.

I wish to share my enthusiastic support for the plan to establish a Greenwich Center for the Arts at the Havemeyer Building. This facility will make it possible for our citizens to enjoy and participate in a wonderfully wide range of artistic activities.

I urge all members of the RTM to support an attractive lease arrangement for the Greenwich Center for the Arts at the Havemeyer Building. GCA is a wonderful cultural opportunity for all of us, and it would be a tragedy to lose or delay this opportunity for the citizens of Greenwich.

Fred Elser
Greenwich

The plans and progress to date surrounding the proposed Greenwich Center for the Arts strike a chord with the Greenwich Choral Society. Next year, GCS will celebrate 80 years of performances and community involvement. As our organization has evolved, the dream of having a facility for rehearsals and performances right here in Greenwich has evolved too. It would be wonderful to have space to be shared with other arts groups that enrich the cultural environment of Greenwich.

It appears that we now have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to create a home for many arts groups. To anyone who asks, "How can we afford such a project?" the answer must be "How can we not?" We at GCS are excited to be among the groups working to make the dream become a reality for the Greenwich Center for the Arts.

Bill Bausch, Former President
Greenwich Choral Society

We recently had the pleasure of meeting with Greenwich Center for the Arts' board members Bea Crumbine and Mary Corson, who provided a tour of the Havemeyer Building and an in-depth presentation of the GCA's plans for transforming the site into an "arts mecca" for the Town of Greenwich. We were impressed at the thoughtful approach applied to revamping this town jewel into a center for all the arts.

The Greenwich Ballet Academy is one of many arts organizations seeking space to carry on its artistic endeavors. The Havemeyer's conversion to an arts center would greatly aid in our school's efforts to bring the highest caliber classical ballet training and performance to the Greenwich community.

The Town of Greenwich owes all those involved with the Greenwich Center for the Arts project an immense debt of gratitude. What an extraordinary gift made possible entirely through private funding! We hope for a speedy resolution to the hurdles that still musts be overcome to make the GCA a reality. A thriving arts community - performing, visual, fine and literary - awaits its home.

Valerie Szeto & Tina Volkwein
Board of Trustees
Greenwich Ballet Academy

I would like to voice my strong support for the Greenwich Center for the Arts. We have so much artistic talent and effort in this community, many eking out rehearsal and performance space in a variety of makeshift places. It seems fitting that they should be given a home!

Nancy Thode
Stamford

The Greenwich Arts Society welcomes the Greenwich Board of Education's decision to leave the Havemeyer Building, thus making that attractive and spacious location available for its proposed conversion into a privately funded Greenwich Center for the Arts.

The Society unreservedly wishes the project well. The envisioned conversion of the Havemeyer building into a multi-tenanted Greenwich Center for the Arts will enhance the cultural vitality of the community for our and future generations.

Liana Moonie & Douglas More, Co-Presidents
Greenwich Arts Society

I believe the proposed Art Center on the Avenue would be of tremendous value to Greenwich and would complete a beautiful central Greenwich.

Ric Wellington, Chairman
Greenwich Parks & Recreation Board

I believe the Center for the Arts concept at the Havemeyer Building is as sound as the structure itself. There is no doubt your vision and enthusiasm will be contagious.

I will certainly forward my written support for the project to you shortly. I would be pleased if you would count me as an advocate for this worthy endeavor.

Fire Chief Peter Siecienski
Greenwich Fire Department