Dear Friend,
I hope this finds you well and feeling the joy of the holiday season.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between the arts and science. It’s pretty interesting and indicative, I think, of where we are as a society. In a world that can’t seem to move beyond the false comfort afforded by binary thinking, we tend to flatten out nuance and reduce the texture of the exciting ambiguity of gray areas to two opposing entities, like two rival sports teams, with one always seen as better than the other. Not different. Better. Psychoanalyst, Melanie Klein, attributed this to a defense mechanism we learn as children that she calls “splitting.” It’s a way of thinking in extremes to push away that which is painful. Unfortunately, this childhood way of dealing with hard things often sticks around into adulthood and beyond, limiting our view of the world.
And so, on a societal level, the arts and science get set up to compete with one another, with science usually winning out. That is one of the reasons why, I believe, the sciences are well funded, while arts budgets in schools are the first to get cut.
Charter Oak offers a different perspective. At Charter Oak, we see the world as a beautiful kaleidoscope of colors and shapes and sizes that do not compete, but each add to the depth and richness of the human experience. As that’s true for people, it’s true for disciplines. Science and the arts are not oppositional. They are unique lenses with which to understand the world. They each add to our knowledge. They each add to our wisdom.
And that is why we are committed, in a society that privileges science, to providing the vital balance the arts offer. A thousand Hartford children, who would not otherwise have exposure to the arts, learn guitar, violin, piano and other musical instruments, dance from hip-hop to ballet, drawing, painting, creative writing, cooking, in our City School of the Arts (CSA). And it’s all free, both tuition-free and audition-free, because we believe the arts are not something ancillary to a good education but at education’s heart, not a luxury, but a human right.
You have made what many considered an impossible dream, a reality. Not only is our school free, but we are able to present professional multi-cultural arts events from which no one is turned away for lack of funds and we are able to offer three arts-based programs for the unsheltered community that provide education and employment opportunities.
This is all because of your generosity, because of your care, because of your concern for the most vulnerable people among us. And, together, we have accomplished a lot.
Under the brilliant leadership of Susan Mazer, beloved Director of our school, CSA is thriving. So much so, that we had 300 children on our waiting list for this past fall semester. While we take this demand as a reflection of our excellent reputation and the fine education we offer, this was heartbreaking to us.
We want to give every child who wants to experience the arts, the opportunity to do so. And that is why I am writing to you. To ask if you will help us open our doors to more students, so no one is left behind.
And, if I may be so bold…
I am asking for something additional, this year: Unrestricted support for Charter Oak that will enable us to make sure we have heat and electricity and the teaching staff and an administrative staff that make all that we do, including CSA and our performances and our programming for unsheltered people happen.
And I am asking you for an extra donation in support of our Our House is a House for All People Capital Campaign, so that we can add 6 more classrooms, create a beautiful, fully–accessible, landscaped campus, a free-standing piano lab and complete the first renovation of our historic building, the first synagogue built in Connecticut, in over 50 years!
This would mean the world to us and to the people we serve.
You know, on October 14th of this year, Europa Clipper, the largest interplanetary craft NASA has ever built, blasted off. In the next five and a half years. it will travel 1.8 billion miles to Europa, Jupiter’s second ring to determine if, given the water on its surface, it could sustain life.
The lead scientists at NASA asked our nation’s poet laureate, Ada Limón, to write a poem, a message from humanity to the life forms that might be discovered on Europa. Clearly, the connection between the arts and science was not lost on them. Ms. Limón wrote a poem entitled, “In Praise of Mystery,” for the Clipper. The scientists then asked her to write it out in her own handwriting. According to The New York Times, “…it was then inscribed on the vault plate alongside the Drake Equation (in Frank Drake’s handwriting), which is used to estimate the number of advanced civilizations in the galaxy. The plate also includes visual representations of ‘water’ in 103 languages, plus a symbol representing the word in American Sign Language.”How beautiful is that? No binaries here. No black and white. Instead, as Walt Disney’s 1960’s show used to tout every Sunday night, the “wonderful world of color.” A full palette. Science and the arts, brilliance in its various forms, a wide spectrum of languages. Room for everyone.
That’s what Charter Oak is about. Not a splitting, but a coming together…to heal. This is what your generosity makes possible. Your kindness is a message from humanity, too. It’s also a message to humanity.
We wish you happy holidays and a new year of blessing.
With Love and Tremendous Gratitude,
Rabbi Donna Berman, Ph.D.
P.S. Thank you for considering giving us two gifts at this time—an unrestricted donation and a donation to our Our House is a House for all People Capital Campaign. No matter how much you can give, it will be deeply appreciated.
Please feel free to send us a check or checks made payable to Charter Oak Cultural Center to:
Charter Oak Cultural Center
21 Charter Oak Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106
Please tell us on the memo line which fund your gift is for. You can visit our Ways to Give webpage to learn additional ways that you can support Charter Oak via donor-advised funds, matching gifts, and more. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!