Center draws on collaborations, community
by Tim Nekritz | nekritz@gmail.com
It’s a gorgeous, sunny Saturday afternoon in late August. A small group of volunteers are in the Oswego Civic Arts Center’s Frances Marion Brown Theater painting and hanging lights for the next Oswego Players’ production.
In the western end of the east side building, the Art Association of Oswego has two exhibitions up in its galleries and spaces ready for the next class or gathering.
While this humming center for creatives of all types is a hidden gem for some — and is among the properties that might be included in a new national park — those who know and love the spaces welcome the added attention to the fruits of their labor.
If you were to walk into what was then known as Building 31 as recently as the early 1960s, you would have seen an abandoned building, where the only occupants documented were pigeons (and their droppings). This space definitely houses a comeback story.
Constructed by the state from 1903 to 1905 as part of Fort Ontario’s operations, the building initially housed Fort Ontario’s quartermaster. But it subsequently played a role in one of the Port City’s most remarkable stories when 982 refugees came to America for the only shelter of its kind welcoming those fleeing the horrors of World War II.
The Safe Haven Museum, which was Building 22, currently houses those memories, but Building 31 was the commissary where the refugees found nourishment and connection as part of the camp where people from all walks of life, most of them Jewish, escaped the Holocaust and other atrocities in war-torn Europe.
These are two of the four structures impacted by recommendations from the National Park Service to become designated as a national park, a years-long process which at press time awaited preparations for Congressional consideration. The recommendation in large part comes from the historic status and unique story of the refugee shelter.
This study also recommended including the local branch of Head Start in Building 30 and the Oswego Hot Stove League in Building 23 as part of the potential park. While the federal study did not recommend Fort Ontario itself under the umbrella of the national park designation, the potential impact is not lost on the residents of the Oswego Civic Arts Center.
“Becoming a national park will be a great thing,” said Norman Berlin III, the Oswego Players’ historian and a board member, while taking a break from lighting the next production, “While the Lights Were Out.”
“I think it will be a great opportunity to highlight the wonderful things we have in the city and the great organizations we have in this building, the Oswego Players and the Art Association of Oswego,” he said.
A story of revival
And yet a bit more than 60 years ago, nobody had an interest in the building. But then two creative organizations — the Oswego Players and the Oswego Art Guild, the forerunner of what is now the Art Association of Oswego — saw the possibilities of the space and turned their dreams into a reality.
“It took a lot of volunteers, but they cleaned it up and turned a shell of a building into what it is today,” Berlin said.
On the Players’ website, oswegoplayers.org, you can find before and after pictures, including from 1962 to 1964 when volunteers built a theater from scratch. That scrappy volunteer energy powers both groups today.
“Things have been busy lately,” said Bill DeMott, the current AAO president as well as its exhibitions coordinator since 1999. “They’re booming like never before.”
Much like the Players, the AAO is open and welcoming to people whatever their level of artistic ability. Some Saturdays feature “Art With Coffee,” where anybody can drop in and learn a new technique or how to work in a new medium, DeMott said.
“Wednesdays every week we have Open Studio from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., where people can come in and work in whatever they do,” he said.
Ceramics classes happening twice a week are “doing incredibly well,” DeMott added.
Every year the AAO stages between 10 and 15 exhibitions across many different media, DeMott noted. “We’ve had a really good variety, both upstairs in the enormous Timothy McHenry Gallery and downstairs in the recently renovated Kirk Beason Gallery.”
DeMott also credited local artist Ron Throop, who served as an artist in residence for nearly a year, for infusing vibrancy into the space while opening doors to new possibilities. “One of the things Ron did was to write a grant so that we could get a PA speaker system,” said DeMott, which has led to the organization hosting more musical artists.
The Art Association’s 2024 calendar will be busy, with a mixed-media exhibition by Paul Garland running on the first floor Sept. 14 to Oct. 13, DeMott and fellow printmaker Maddie Coraro presenting “Monotypes” upstairs from Oct. 19 to Nov. 17, with those same dates hosting Tim Moxley’s photographs and other media in the downstairs gallery. After a printmaking half-marathon on Nov. 19, the year closes with a holiday show and sale in both galleries Nov. 29 to Dec. 22.
In addition to other member shows throughout the year, the Art Association of Oswego might be best known for its spring Lakeside Statewide Juried Art Exhibition, which draws top submissions from far and wide. A full calendar is available on the AAO’s website, oswegoarts.org
Plenty of play-ing
The Oswego Players, meanwhile, keep their own busy schedule.
“We try to do about four main stage productions, not counting offsite things like dinner theater and the Don McCann Playwriting Competition, which is more of a benefit,” Berlin said.
The one-act play competition, named for previous Oswego Players historian and publicist McCann, has seen a huge resurgence in the past few years. “This year we received 90 play submissions from around the state of New York,” Berlin said during an August interview, also noting McCann was a previous historian and mentor. “We’re in the middle of the second round of selections.”
In late August, volunteers — including Berlin and his mother — worked on the finer details of a production of “While the Lights Went Out” (Sept. 6-8 and 13-15) with two more 2024 productions on the horizon: “Arsenic and Old Lace” (Oct. 25 to 27, Nov. 1 to 3) and “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus” (Dec. 6 to 8 and 13 to 15).
While both organizations celebrate the holiday spirit with their respective events, the spirit of cooperation lives in the building all year round.
“The Oswego Players and the Art Association have become really good partners and collaborators,” DeMott said. “We have a shared lobby and a shared kitchen and really support each other.”
Some Art Association events have utilized the Frances Marion Brown Theater for musical entertainment. And last year when Oswego Players partnered with Oswego Opera Theater for the children’s opera “Brundibar,” they wanted to include scenes of Oswego in the production. So they reached out to the Art Association and members Mike Flanagan and Larry Rapshaw created paintings richly detailing Oswego landmarks.
And this building, an overlooked Oswego landmark in itself, has served its denizens well.
In addition to the Kirk Beason Gallery, the AAO’s first floor features a spacious classroom and workshop that has hosted printmaking marathons with invited entertainment in the gallery, as well as a lot of digital art possibilities.
“The basement has a really great ceramics facility, while the second floor’s Timothy McHenry Gallery is enormous,” DeMott said. “All that room has allowed us to host special events like An Evening of Women’s Voices, with entertainment that has been very popular.”
On the Players’ side, the second floor provides room for a lighting booth and other upstairs needs, while the basement houses costumes, props and old set pieces.
Welcoming community
The 60-seat theater hosts popular shows that allow volunteer cast and crew members to not only create new realms but also forge long-lasting connections in the magical world of community theater, Berlin said. Experience is not required for any cast or crew position, but passion is prized.
“Community theater as a whole can teach community service and community involvement, and creates lifelong friendships and relationships that can last five to six decades,” Berlin said.
Berlin said he started with the Players at 9 years of age as part of a theater family. While his mother continues helping with creating the sets, his late father constructed sets and props, plus played the drums for musicals.
Norman Berlin Jr.’s legacy lives on with things he built as well as helping inspire his son’s theater work. “It’s wonderful to walk into a room and see a table that he built,” Berlin said. “This is where I met so many wonderful people who are a part of my life. The Players really helped me become who I am today.”
Berlin also can testify to the inclusive nature of the Oswego Players and all those in the building, how the group can take somebody who started as an autistic child and turn him into a key member of a civic organization.
“This took me out of my comfort zone and showed me what I could do,” Berlin said. “I learned so much about life and about community involvement and community service.”
The organizations have rented from the city for decades, and found them “great partners,” DeMott said. The recommended federal designation would change things with the National Park Service ultimately becoming the new landlords for the Oswego Civic Arts Center. As the city previously did, the federal agency would maintain the external parts of the building while the organizations would continue running the vibrant happenings inside.
Whatever the final outcome of the park’s status on a federal level, the building’s past and present both are cherished.
“It’s just a great space,” DeMott said. “It continues to serve our needs so well.”
“To spend most of my life in this historical building has been remarkable,” Berlin said. “I’ve literally grown up here working on lights, painting sets and acting. It’s been a true pleasure and a joy.”
Tim Nekritz is director of news and media for SUNY Oswego, where he spearheads telling the stories of the campus community.
