The New York Times - USA (2020-11-09)

ilies can return. (Many students continue to
take classes by video.)
With many performers and arts organiza-
tions staring at a financial abyss, the
Harlem School of the Arts has risen and
thrived through adversity.
Ms. Maynor was an acclaimed lyric so-
prano of Black and Native American ances-
try with a wide smile and a talent now large-
ly overlooked. “Miss Maynor’s voice is phe-
nomenal for its range, character, and varied
resources,” wrote The Times critic Olin
Downes in a review of a famed concert at
Town Hall in 1939. She sang classical reper-
tory at the world’s concert halls, but retired
in 1963, having performed at Dwight Eisen-
hower’s presidential inauguration but
never at the Metropolitan Opera, which did
not hire African-American singers for lead-
ing roles when she was in her prime. (She
died at age 85 in 1996.)
The Harlem School of the Arts, which of-
fers classes in music, dance, theater and
visual arts, was Ms. Maynor’s second act.
She sought to serve children who had no ex-
posure to arts in public schools and no ac-
cess to private instruction. She would say
that children were made to believe that
beauty did not exist in their community but
only beyond it.
She started the school in the community
house of St. James Presbyterian Church,
where her husband, the Rev. Shelby Rooks,
was rector. The classes promptly drew
swarms of applicants even as Harlem was
racked by protests and riots in 1964 after
the fatal shooting of a Black teenager,
James Powell, by a white off-duty police of-
ficer.
The school finally moved into its own
building next to the church in 1977. Its archi-
tect, Ulrich Franzen, designed the school
around the Gathering Place, as Ms. Maynor
had requested, to more generously accom-
modate parents who had spontaneously ap-
propriated a hallway in the community
house to savor their children’s develop-
ment.
With New York City just two years past
its brush with bankruptcy, the new 37,000-
square-foot building with studios, practice
rooms and four large dance spaces de-
signed with the help of George Balanchine,
was an extraordinary act of faith at a time
when the city’s future was very much in
doubt.
Though the school thrived for years, it
was forced to close its doors in 2010 because
of poor financial management. Kate Levin,
commissioner of the city’s Department of
Cultural Affairs in the Bloomberg adminis-
tration, coordinated support to get the
school back on its feet.
A donor appeared unexpectedly from
California as if conjured by Ms. Maynor,
who had been a prodigious fund-raiser:
Herb Alpert had read about the fate of the
school. “It had given such creativity to the
community,” he recalled by phone from his
home in Malibu. “How could people in New
York allow it to fold?”
He matched the funds Ms. Levin raised
from several donors: $500,000 from his
Herb Alpert Foundation founded with his
wife, the singer Lani Hall. In 2012, when
new leadership was in place and the school
was again humming, Mr. Alpert added $2
million to erase the school’s debt and estab-
lished a $3 million endowment for student
financial aid.
“Herb sticks out as an unusual cat on the
philanthropy scene,” said David Callahan,
the founder and editor of Inside Philan-
thropy, a website that monitors givers and
their gifts. Few philanthropists rescue foun-
dering organizations or retire debt, he said.
“They want to set sail with the ship, not go
down with it.” He added, “Arts education is a
big gap in the philanthropic marketplace.”
Mr. Alpert’s fortune derives substantially
from the sale of A&M Records in 1989 for
$500 million. The foundation mainly sup-
ports arts and music education. The Harlem
School is one of Mr. Alpert and Ms. Hall’s
legacy organizations, which receive sus-
taining gifts over time.
Mr. Alpert said the trumpet he picked up
in grammar school “had taken me so many
places in my life. I think every kid should
have that opportunity at an early age.” Rona
Sebastian, the foundation’s president, add-
ed, “Getting rid of the debt was the only way
to save the school and work toward the fu-
ture.”
When Mr. Pryor asked the architect, Ms.
Imrey, to look at some problems with the
building in 2018, he inquired about how the
school could more clearly transmit its mis-
sion to the community. “I said they should
get rid of the solid front wall,” Ms. Imrey ex-
plained. She sketched a 70-foot-wide metal
and glass expanse to replace it.
“I insisted on this huge glass front door,”
Ms. Imrey said. “I had this image of a young
girl running to her lesson from the subway.
She would run up to this big door but be able
to open it herself. This makes the school her
place.”

Mr. Pryor liked “taking the veil off the

front so people could see what was going

on.” And Mr. Alpert agreed to support the

renovation. “When you feel good and feel

welcomed, you bring creative energy to a

space,” he said. “That’s what we wanted to

create.” What’s now called the Renaissance

Project was born.

Mr. Alpert brought in the acoustician

John Storyk, who had worked on Jazz at

Lincoln Center. Mr. Storyk proposed sloping

the glass wall outward to reflect the sound

around the room. Arrays of speakers permit

multiple seating and performance configu-

rations. The advanced theater technology is

expected to attract more talent to the school

and, ultimately, lead to income from outside

events.

With the completion of the Renaissance

Project last month, the facility has been re-

named the Harlem School of the Arts at the

Herb Alpert Center. All the new possibilities

await a time when the school’s programs for

adults and children can resume.

“We’re looking at forming small pods of

kids, especially for dance,” Mr. Pryor said,

noting that practicing at home doesn’t

work: “You can’t move properly in a

kitchen.” As the school moves urgently

though cautiously toward reopening, he

pointed out, “Some kids and their families

are dealing with depression, separation

anxiety, loss of family members, isolation. A

few are homeless.” He imagined having

them all back in the Gathering Place, now

officially called Dorothy Maynor Hall, after

their first patron.

“I know,” he added, “that they would eat

this up.”

C2 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Harlem School for the Arts Rises Anew

CONTINUED FROM PAGE C1

‘When you feel good and

feel welcomed, you bring

creative energy to a

space.’

HERB ALPERT

MUSICIAN AND PHILANTHROPIST

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ELIAS WILLIAMS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

VIA HARLEM SCHOOL OF THE ARTS ARCHIVES MICHELLE V. AGINS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Clockwise from top: Eric

Pryor, president of the Harlem

School of the Arts at the Herb

Alpert Center; a glass expanse

replaced a solid wall during

renovations that ended last

month; Herb Alpert, the

trumpeter and record

company executive whose

foundation has contributed $17

million to the school to retire

debt, support renovations and

establish an endowment fund

for student financial aid;

Dorothy Maynor with some of

the children who attended the

school she started in the

community house of St. James

Presbyterian Church.