Will Maitland Director of the Arts & Business Council of New York Delivers keynote address at Downtown Committees annual meeting this Tuesday

The Downtown Committee holds its annual meeting on Tuesday, June 23rd at 8:30a.m. at the Museum of Science and Technology, 500 South Franklin Street, in Syracuse’s Armory Square district. The public is invited to attend.

The meeting is entitled “Downtown: Arts Color Economic Growth.” Jim Breuer, Chairman of the Downtown Committee, noted that the revitalization of downtown has been closely related to the expansion of arts, education and cultural attractions downtown. “The arts bring thousands of people downtown every year, and offer unique and compelling reasons why people come downtown. In Central New York, the greatest arts and cultural institutions are downtown.”

Based in Manhattan, the Arts & Business Council of New York is a partnership devoted to stimulating alliances, benefitting both the arts and business sectors and the communities that they serve. Through its cultural tourism initiative, the Council encourages partnerships between the cultural and business resources in travel, hotel, restaurant and retail sectors to attract new visitors to New York, create job opportunities and stimulate local economic growth.

Mr. Weiss was named Executive Director of the Arts and Business Council of New York in 2005.

Before joining the Arts and Business Council of New York, Mr. Weiss served as Director of The Center for Creative Resources, a nonprofit firm providing development, marketing and management services to small and midsized arts organizations and individual artists’ projects.

Prior to that, he spent five years as Vice President of Development and Communications for New York’s City Center, where he successfully increased its annual fundraising and sales income and secured more than $14 million in capital funding. Mr. Weiss spent 10 years as Deputy Director of Development for the New York City Opera, where he oversaw a staff of 14 and annually raised more than $11 million. He spent four years as Managing Director of CSC Repertory, an off-Broadway theater, and five years with the American Stage Festival.

Also featured at the meeting will be representatives of arts, education and cultural institutions which will have a major impact on downtown in the coming year.

Steven Kern, Director of the Everson Museum of Art, which will host an international exhibit of impressionist paintings this fall, entitled “Turner to C (c)zanne”. The Everson is one of only five stops in the United States for the exhibit which is expected to attract thousands of visitors to the region.

Ann Clarke, Dean of Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, which will take up residency in the Warehouse this fall, and has already had an impact downtown with the opening of the XL Project.

Owen Shapiro, Artistic Director of the Syracuse International Film Festival, which now is in its sixth year, will discuss the potential and impact of movie production in the city center.

David Mankiewicz, Executive Director of the Downtown Committee, welcomes the public to attend the annual meeting. “The Downtown Committee’s Annual Meeting will be held in a very appropriate location, at the Museum of Science and Technology. Thirty years ago, the MOST was simply a dream of the Technology Club and Junior League of Syracuse; today it is a major

educational and cultural attraction for downtown and a foundation of Armory Square.”

Tickets for the event cost $15 and are available by contacting the Downtown Committee at 422-8284 or through its Web site at downtownsyracuse.com.