Creativity Under the Spotlight

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Creativity Under the Spotlight

Beck Center highlighted the importance of the arts during the pandemic.

Tony Award-nominated actor Rory O’Malley has said how much impact Beck Center for the Arts has had on his life. From the time O’Malley was in second grade through his senior year at St. Ignatius High School, the Broadway and television actor called the Lakewood arts complex his second home.

“Rory has said Beck Center saved his life. He flourished here, found himself here, found his people here,” says Ed Gallagher, Beck Center’s director of education.

Beck Center “teaches the arts, but also provides life skills and life experiences,” says Gallagher. Overwhelming support for Beck Center’s Creating Our Future $6.7-million capital campaign announced in March 2020, confirms the community’s approval.

Pledges and gifts have already enabled the dedication of the new Fowler-Spellman Education wing, according to Dena Rhodes Adler, director of development. A new Center for Music and Creative Arts Therapies, a Center for Dance Education (the largest program at Beck Center), as well as an ADA entryway and new marquee “will bring more exposure and visibility.” New restrooms and a reconfiguration of the customer service area, plus other improvements and additions are part of the plan. Bialosky Cleveland and Turner Construction are the design and construction partners for the project on Beck Center’s three-acre campus.

Adler says the funding will “provide an inclusive space for the community to gather.” The renovations “will provide accessibility and energy efficiency to the oldest part of the building.” The campaign is led by co-chairs Doug Hoffman, Ellen Todia, Sandra Sauder and Lucinda Einhouse, president and CEO of Beck Center for the Arts.

“During the pandemic, we learned the arts are even more critical than in normal times,” says Adler. “Our students, patrons and families faced isolation, job loss, fear and depression. Beck Center provided free programming and stayed top of mind so that when we opened our doors, we would be ready.

In addition, Beck Center provides creative arts therapy services to special needs programs for all Lakewood public schools. Last year, Beck’s creative arts therapists assembled music and art kits for these students, no matter what grade or program. Music kits contained small auxiliary percussion instruments, including tambourines and maracas, as well as rhythm sticks and movement scarves. Art boxes held crayons, paint, paintbrushes, pencils, paper and more. Supplies were delivered by Lakewood teachers to students’ doorsteps.

“We assembled a couple hundred kits for students with what they needed for a half semester, and we had to assume that they had no materials at home. Some families may have every piece of sports equip-

ment, but no art supplies. In other homes, you can’t find a tennis ball because they have so many art supplies,” explains Gallagher.

Beck Center also provided online learning during the pandemic shutdown. Now Gallagher points out people consider convenience to be more important than health and safety reasons for desiring remote instruction. Child/ parent classes that can be accomplished at home together are growing in popularity, as are visual arts classes.

Recently Beck Center celebrated its 85th year as a professional theater, 70 years with a youth theater and 25 years providing creative art therapies to Northeast Ohio. The investments those make in Beck Center, including monetary, volunteer hours or efforts for personal creative fulfillment, help create a vital arts resource for everyone, Gallagher says.

One of Gallagher’s favorite memories is the time he introduced the youthful star of one of Beck Center’s productions of Annie to a performer who appears in Beck’s annual production of Razzle Dazzle, featuring adults with disabilities.

“They just proceeded to have a conversation that you might hear between any two actors about their experience acting on stage,” recalls Gallagher. “In that moment, there was no difference between them. They were just both actors who enjoy entertaining people. That kind of shared experience among everyone who comes to Beck is just transformational.”

— Jill Sell