Click the image below to read our
Fiscal Year 2009 Annual Report!

From the
Executive Director:
A Year of Growth
and Success

This past year has been one of real growth and excitement for the New Center for
Arts and Culture.

With the launch of New Center LIVE!, our interview series, we are bringing a fresh
addition to the Boston cultural landscape – celebrated Jewish artists, authors, and
thinkers sharing insights on their careers and worlds.

From The New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff, to renowned Israeli author
A.B. Yehoshua, author Adam Gopnik to NPR’s Legal Affairs correspondent, Nina
Totenberg, our audiences enjoyed the unique experiences of the “person behind the
legend” and insight into each presenter’s work and world.

Special thanks is owed to our partner Temple Israel, in whose beautifully renovated Levi Auditorium we
held our events and many of whose members by their presence helped New Center LIVE! get off to a
strong start.

Another major initiative this year was Prism, our programming organization for young Jewish adults
in their 20s and 30s. Prims launched its programming series with You Said... WHAAAT?!, an
irreverent yet thoughtful look at ethnic humor. Prism has a lively roster of events for Fall 2009
and 2010, including adventures in food, music and literature. Engaging the Next Generation of Jewish
young people through arts and culture is an important idea that is gaining traction throughout
the Jewish community nationally. We are proud that the New Center’s Prism group, led by a committed volunteer council,
is pioneering this effort in Boston.

We continued and expanded our “Tikkun Olam” initiative, Explore World Arts, bringing a program of
global arts to at-risk inner-city youngsters at summer day camps. Thanks to new funding from the
Connors Family Foundation, the James W. Rollins Charitable Trust and the Red Sox Foundation, we
continued our program at Camp Harbor View and expanded to Boys and Girls Clubs in Chelsea and
Charlestown, as well as the Jewish Community Center’s Camp Kaleidoscope.

This was an extraordinarily challenging year for all non-profit organizations. I am pleased to say that
for the New Center, it was a year of financial stability and significant growth in program participation
and audience development.

At the New Center we are creating a unique Boston showcase for the talents of Jewish artists and
thinkers. We are bringing together young adults through Jewish-inspired cultural programs and
creating a new way to experience thoughtful, provocative explorations of culture from a Jewish
perspective.

We are especially grateful for the steadfast support of our founding benefactors, the
Leventhal-Sidman Family, Ronald M. Druker, and the Druker Family. I am deeply appreciative of the
ongoing commitment of our Board of Directors, and the wise and steady counsel of our Chair,
Paula L. Sidman.

My sincere thanks to all of you who have attended our programs, and supported us with contributions.
Please keep telling your friends to come and share the excitement!

Francine Achbar, Executive Director