The Music Hall’s Capital Campaign Enters ‘Community Phase’: Recent Major Gifts Bring Campaign Total to $11.4 Million

PORTSMOUTH—
As The Music Hall begins its countdown to the launch of The Music Hall Loft, its new Center for Performing Arts, Literature, and Education, its Treasure the Future capital campaign is stepping out into the community to advance its fundraising efforts.
Said Treasure the Future Campaign Co-Chair Jameson French, “Through its infancy back in the mid 1980s up until this day, The Music Hall has been a community project, supported and advanced by the generosity of all sorts of individuals – from business leaders who set up challenge gifts to individual patrons throwing money in the hat at end of a show. As we look to the success of this major campaign it is, again, all about the community and individuals’ support for bringing arts to the community.”
The move to a community phase comes with the announcement of several major advancements in fundraising. Chief among them is a $1,000,000 pledge to the Treasure the Future campaign from the Thomas W. Haas Foundation of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Additionally, the campaign has received several major six figure gifts and legacy pledges bringing the campaign total to $11.4 million in funds raised. In addition to the on-the-ground community effort, the Campaign Committee continues to pursue other major gifts with a number of key prospects.
“The Committee’s work on major gifts combined with our efforts in the community bring us within sight of our goal,” said Director of Institutional Advancement and Campaign lead, Laura Smith.
“To see the completion of the capital projects, we need to raise $1 million in new funds in the final phase of the campaign. On the way to the finish, we’ll see many intermediate steps. We’re on the road to meeting a mini-challenge set for our opera audience. Last week with the launch of our new website we now have the capacity to accept donations online at http://www.themusichall.org/support_us (click “Donate to the Campaign.”) We’re planning outreach to all Music Hall members and patrons. In the weeks ahead all our members and audiences will be invited to an open house in the new Music Hall Loft hosted by the Board of Trustees on Sunday, April 10. The open house will be a show-and-tell for the new space. It’s also where the campaign will truly be launched for the community,” added Smith.
“We’ve achieved this milestone of $11.4 million with major donors, board members, staff and a number of corporations and downtown businesses digging deep in support of The Music Hall. They have inspired and challenged us to step out further into the community and gather support from all our patrons and members. This is truly everyone’s Music Hall and every gift gets us closer to realizing our goal. We look forward to everyone joining in and to the fun of seeing donors recognized on our donor wall by generations to come,” said Campaign Co-Chair Gail VanHoy Carolan.
“Not since the historic theater was threatened by a wrecking ball in 1980s have we seen such a transformation in the scope of The Music Hall and its work in the community. With the Music Hall Loft space nearly complete, we are already seeing its powerful effect on the city and on the broader region. Shows are selling out before the paint is even dry! But, more importantly, more and more individuals are stepping forward to offer support. They know as we do this is a rare opportunity for any individuals who wants to make their mark and support the future of the arts and education as we experience and treasure them in this special community,” said Executive Director Patricia Lynch.
Photo caption: The Music Hall’s Loft design team pictured in June of last year, including Doug Nelson, Mary Jo Brown, Lee Frank, John Merkel, John DeStefano, Patricia Lynch, Jennifer Steffek, Diane Hart and John Lynch. Their efforts, along with the impressive and ongoing fundraising over the past year, will result in the opening of the new Loft performance space in April. (Courtesy photo)

Shipyard Continues to Affect NH Economy

By Larry Favinger
Staff Columnist
KITTERY—
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard continued to be a major contributor to the economies of southern Maine and southeastern New Hampshire in 2010 with indications of even further increases this year.
The Seacoast Shipyard Association recently released the Economic Impact Study for the calendar year 2010, showing growing employment, the purchase of goods and services, and contracted facility services.
Civilian employment at the Kittery facility has risen from 3,648 in 1998 to 5,168 last year with a corresponding increase in payroll. In 1998, workers earned $192,008,527, while last year’s payroll was set at $395,166,516.
The total civilian payroll for the shipyard is set at over $395 million, and $227,335,288 of that is to workers in the state of Maine. A total of 2,911 Mainers are employed there. New Hampshire’s 2,015 workers have a payroll of $149,514,994.
The military payroll also showed an increase over 2009. The 2010 figures included $24,961,035 for Navy personnel and $14,978,396 for the Coast Guard.
The shipyard purchased over $44 million in goods and services, $6.4 million from Maine and $4.3 million from New Hampshire providers. Over $20 million worth of goods and services were purchased in the six New England states.
Good news on the horizon for the shipyard came in a joint press release from Republican U.S. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, New Hampshire Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, announcing that the Navy proposes to invest approximately $100 million during Fiscal Year 2012 in facility upgrades and modernization.
The funding, provided through the Sustainment, Restoration and Modernization (SRM) budget, would be used for energy conservation and repairs to submarine enclosures, building renovations, repair to the waterfront support facility and structural repair and consolidation of the yard’s workshops.
“This announcement represents an important commitment by the Navy to the future of the Kittery-Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and I am pleased by this response to our efforts to encourage such investments in the long-term health of the Yard’s facilities,” Sen. Snowe said.
Sen. Susan Collins said, “This is wonderful news not only for the dedicated men and women who work at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, and their families, but also for the economy of the greater York County region.”
“I am glad to see the Obama administration prioritize funding of these long overdue improvements at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard,” Sen. Shaheen said. “Investments in this facility are critical to our country’s national security. (This) announcement is encouraging news to the hardworking men and women who keep the shipyard up and running.”
“The workers at Portsmouth have a long history of executing high quality work, and this funding is a reflection of that stellar record,” Sen. Ayotte said. “As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I will continue the fight to ensure that Portsmouth receives the strong support it has earned.”
The funding is contingent on Congressional authorization and appropriation of the funds in the 2012 budget.

The Wild and Crazy Guy Gets Serious

By Chip Schrader
Book Reviewer
“An Object of Beauty” is actor Steve Martin’s latest novel featuring the cutthroat business behind art collecting. A follow up to the novella “Shop Girl,” which was adapted to the screen, Martin positions himself as a Renaissance Man with screenplays, stage plays, novels, albums featuring his banjo playing, and comedic writing all credited to his name.
“An Object of Beauty” is told from the perspective of Daniel Franks. While the reader might expect the novel to be the lamenting of his own life, Daniel’s focus is on the life and times of his muse, Lacey Yeager. Lacey is a street-wise, unattached, and ruthless self-promoter. Starting in the basement of Sotheby’s restoring and cataloging “dogs,” or lesser paintings, she climbs her way up to work for a private collector.
Martin’s descriptions of the paintings mentioned in the story please even readers who do not have an understanding of art and its collectability. The story uncovers why certain paintings become valuable, and how successful people become successful through cunning. Lacey’s beauty and cunning embody the art and the business of the art trade. As Martin describes the beauty of a painting, and the teetering values of these pieces, the reader quickly realizes, he is also describing his main character.
The intermittent first person insertions in the narration give this book a shade of the old hard-boiled detective fiction. While narrator Daniel admits some of the details of his subject are made up, the account of her life seems plausible. Furthermore, this admission by the narrator is a clever device that Martin uses to enable for a more complete depiction of the elusive Lacey that even her greatest admirer could not follow her enough to witness.
The sensuality, wit, and strength of Lacey are almost enough to forgive her predilection to use the people around her. She is nearly tragic as value has only a material context, and the story, without judgment takes us on her rise to Power. Among the most interesting incidents during her ascent is her trip to Russia where she is asked to trade paintings. It is here that she meets Patrice, a European with the eyes and hands of an artist. For the first time, Lacey finds interest in somebody for more than a one-time rendezvous.
Another touch this novel provides is full color reproductions of many of the paintings Martin references in the story. Martin never falls into the trap of using art world jargon, and he keeps his audience interested in his subject while retaining the integrity and intelligence in his storytelling.
While readers might expect a fluffy romp from the actor who made “The Jerk” a household classic, Steve Martin veers away from comedy avoiding high drama, and weaves a tale with a great deal of class and tact. His descriptions are light and read quickly, yet vivid enough to paint a thorough picture in the reader’s mind. “An Object of Beauty” belongs in the same category as the work of Peter Mayle and even Truman Capote.
Grand Central Publishing, November 2010, 292 Pages, $26.99.
Photo caption: (Courtesy book cover of “An Object of Beauty” by Steve Martin)