[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 94 (Tuesday, June 22, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5262-S5264]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO ANDREA ROGERS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today I honor Andrea Rogers, the CEO and 
founding executive director of the Flynn Center for the Performing 
Arts. I have had the privilege to congratulate Andrea over the years on 
her many accomplishments within the arts community, including her most 
recent award from the Vermont Arts Council, the Walter Cerf Lifetime 
Achievement in the Arts award. Today, I once again recognize her 
decades of invaluable service to Vermonters and I wish her future 
success as she retires from her executive director position at the 
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts after 30 years of dedicated 
service.
  In 1980, Andrea led a campaign to purchase an old movie house in 
downtown Burlington, with the hope of turning it into a home for 
performing arts groups. She was successful, and the old building became 
an independent theatre. Andrea organized many fundraising efforts to 
restore the antiquated space, and within the next 5 years, the Flynn 
succeeded in hosting over 350 performances presented by 50 different 
organizations. Today, 30 years

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later, the Flynn Theatre is known as the Flynn Center for the 
Performing Arts and is firmly embedded into Chittenden County and 
Vermont's cultural landscape.
  Since its founding, the Flynn has expanded and renovated its space, 
hosted thousands of diverse performances, opened an art gallery and 
created many educational programs. Because of Andrea's leadership, the 
Flynn has received several awards across the state, the country, and 
even the world. It was the only organization honored by both the Ford 
Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in 2000. The 
Flynn's educational program has also been recognized by the Dana 
Foundation as one of eight outstanding arts programs in the country, 
and has recently received the Outstanding Historic American Theatre 
Award at a national conference put on by the League of Historic 
American Theatres.
  I am proud to say that all of these accomplishments happened under 
Andrea's tenure. She is widely recognized for her passion for 
performing arts and community development, and her dedication has had 
an extraordinary impact on the arts in Vermont. Marcelle and I have 
spent some of our most memorable evenings at the Flynn, and Andrea's 
enthusiasm for her work and for her colleagues will be dearly missed. I 
ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the following 
article to permanently recognize Andrea's contribution to the State of 
Vermont.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                    [From the Burlington Free Press]

                Flynn Center Director Exits, Stage Right

                           (By Sally Pollak)

       A monoprint of a jazz trombone quartet hangs above Andrea 
     Rogers' desk in her office at the Flynn Center for the 
     Performing Arts. The piece is alive with color--golds and 
     purple--and appears at first to be an abstract work. But a 
     second look reveals players, instruments, music stands: art 
     and music in vibrant harmony. ``I love the alive feeling of 
     it,'' Rogers said. ``I have all this artwork, and no place at 
     home to put it.''
       Rogers has until the end of the month to find wall space in 
     her Burlington house. The last day of June will be the final 
     day of Rogers' tenure as executive director of the Flynn. She 
     will be succeeded by John Killacky, who has been manager of 
     the arts and culture program for the San Francisco 
     Foundation. Rogers, who will turn 70 on July 14, has guided 
     the Flynn since before its creation--when she and other 
     community members recognized potential in a dilapidated Main 
     Street theater being used as a cinema. ``The Flynn was of 
     interest to me--the potential of the theater to serve as a 
     performing-arts center,'' Rogers said. She was intrigued by 
     the idea of preserving a historic building, one whose 
     existence was threatened, and adapting it to community use.
       ``It's something that I saw that needed to be done. I never 
     dreamed I'd be the director. . . . ``Burlington was my home, 
     and I could see there was a need. If people want something, 
     and there's a reasonable chance that they can come together 
     to make it happen, it can happen. There were many times when 
     I cried, and wondered if we could pull it off. But I went to 
     the public: Every step forward we made, it was because the 
     community was behind us. It was very organic.'' Thirty years 
     after accepting the job she never dreamed of, Rogers is 
     stepping down as the only executive director the Flynn has 
     had.
       She has both envisioned the nonprofit performing-arts 
     center, and guided its growth: The Flynn has a $6 million 
     endowment, an education department that presents student 
     matinees, offers classes and develops and implements arts 
     curriculums in local schools.
       The theater presents its own season of shows, commissions 
     work and plays host to artists' residencies. The Flynn's own 
     programming has grown from about three shows a year to 50 to 
     60 annual performances, Rogers said. It serves as a 
     performance space for other organizations, such as the 
     Vermont Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Theatre. The smaller 
     FlynnSpace is a venue for more experimental pieces, where 
     about 40 percent of the shows are Flynn presentations.
       ``I love the Flynn,'' said Jaime Laredo of Guilford, VSO 
     music director and a violinist and conductor who performs 
     around the world. ``It's one of the most vibrant arts centers 
     anywhere, not just in the state of Vermont. ``It's so amazing 
     what goes on there, the range of things--from symphonies to 
     country music to Broadway shows to recitals to jazz. I don't 
     know many places like that. I think it's fantastic. And I 
     think what Andrea has done is miraculous.''
       Bob Dylan and Phish played at the Flynn in the 1990s; 
     Mikhail Baryshnikov has performed on its main stage three 
     times; the World Saxophone Quartet blew free jazz on a 
     winter's night in the late '80s. The contemporary dancer/
     choreographer Bill T. Jones presented his first full version 
     of ``Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land,'' 
     outside of New York City, at the Flynn. The major work, co-
     commissioned by the Flynn and addressing hot-button issues, 
     included workshops with Jones and dozens of community members 
     naked on stage as part of the performance.


                           Art and community

       The Jones piece could serve as Exhibit A in what people say 
     is Rogers' most important contribution to Burlington: 
     bringing together art and community, with each step of the 
     building of the Flynn a commitment to that ideal.
       ``Andrea has allowed her life to be defined by the mission 
     of what the Flynn Center is all about,'' guitarist Paul 
     Asbell said. ``You do it out of love and a sense of mission. 
     It is her vision that has been implemented.'' Asbell knows 
     the Flynn as a performer and an audience member, and he knows 
     Burlington before the Flynn existed.
       ``The contribution to Burlington is too deep to even count 
     it all,'' Asbell said. ``It's been remarked thousands of 
     times that for the size of the city, it's incredible the type 
     of cultural events and musical events and artistic awareness 
     in Burlington. It's unbelievable what we've grown accustomed 
     to.''
       Along the way, the Flynn has earned a national reputation 
     among arts organizations and arts funders for its 
     programming, its audience-building and its community 
     engagement.
       ``To this day, the Flynn stands as model of how to do it 
     right, how to have a strong artistic program and at the same 
     time be a central node for community,'' said Philip Bither, 
     senior curator of performing arts at the Walker Art Center in 
     Minneapolis. He is the former Flynn director of programming/
     artistic director of the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival.
       ``We talk about attempting to create cultural commons, 
     places that a diverse range of audiences can gather and 
     celebrate live performing arts,'' Bither said. ``The Flynn is 
     that. It's really a remarkable success story. Andrea has been 
     there from Day 1, and has really had the vision to see how to 
     get to that place.''
       The audience ranges from wealthy patrons who attend 
     frequent performances to children in Burlington's Old North 
     End. Kids not only attend shows, but also participate in 
     mini-artist workshops: Third-graders at the Integrated Arts 
     Academy recently had a song swap with singers in the African 
     Children's Choir--trading and singing songs together.
       ``For many children, the only time they walk down Church 
     Street is when they go with their class to the Flynn,'' said 
     Joyce Irvine, principal of IAA.


                          Active till her exit

       With retirement three weeks away, Rogers has little time to 
     think about her exit. In fact, pending retirement never 
     looked so active. She tracks jazz festival ticket sales every 
     day, comparing numbers with last year and the year before--an 
     activity that shows Rogers takes nothing for granted, 
     including next season's existence.
       ``It takes a lot to keep this going,'' Rogers said. ``It's 
     not a shoo-in. We start from scratch every year, raising an 
     operating budget.'' Rogers is immersed in putting together 
     next season's sponsorship, and then comes the budget for 
     fiscal 2011. ``The biggest part of what I do is supporting 
     everybody else,'' Rogers said. She has evening jazz festival 
     events and shows to attend. ``That part never felt like 
     work,'' Rogers said. She notes a particular change that will 
     come with retirement: ``I have to pay now. I'm going to be a 
     good patron.''


                         A community organizer

       Rogers came to her work at the Flynn through community 
     organizing. She grew up in New Britain, Conn., and attended 
     college at the University of Michigan, where she studied 
     history, history of art and French. After college, Rogers 
     moved to New York City, where she lived for almost 10 years. 
     She worked for the American Field Service, doing community-
     service work with teenagers.
       She moved here in 1970, interested in living in a small 
     city and drawn to Burlington by a beloved great aunt and 
     uncle who lived here, and by her love for skiing and sailing. 
     Soon after arriving, Rogers started working in community-
     based drug-prevention efforts. The job combined her interests 
     in community organization and working with young people. She 
     liked the community involvement, setting up and organizing 
     systems--but the core issue was not where her true interests 
     lay, Rogers said.
       After four years working in drug-abuse prevention, Rogers 
     became founding director of the Church Street Center for 
     Community Education, a university-affiliated center that 
     preceded the Firehouse Center for Visual Arts. Her 
     involvement with a community effort, spearheaded by Lyric 
     Theatre, to purchase and renovate the Flynn led to her hiring 
     as its first director. She was writing grants for the project 
     and doing other organizational work when Rogers was asked if 
     she'd open an office, she recalled.
       ``Well,'' she replied, ``you have to pay me.'' It was only 
     a ``pittance,'' she said, but it was enough to persuade her 
     to devote herself to the Flynn effort. Syndi Zook, executive 
     director of Lyric Theatre, was a Lyric performer when the 
     company endeavored to return the theater--then owned by 
     Merrill Jarvis--to a live performance space. ``We wanted to 
     put on plays,'' Zook said. ``We didn't want to be engaged in 
     the multimillion-dollar campaign that it would take to bring 
     that

[[Page S5264]]

     beautiful building back to its historic stature.'' That was 
     left to the newly created Flynn board, and to Rogers.
       ``What we were trying to do was save it from the wrecking 
     ball,'' Zook said. ``What Andrea has done is save this 
     beautiful historic landmark that is just a jewel in the 
     center of the city.''
       During her years at the Flynn, Rogers said her artistic 
     sensibility grew to include an appreciation for contemporary 
     dance. She had always enjoyed music--listening, singing and 
     playing piano--and contemporary art. ``I found the merging of 
     music and movement and abstract ideas to be really eye-
     opening and exciting,'' Rogers said. ``I came to really 
     appreciate it, and not to feel the need to totally understand 
     it.''


                          Courage and ambition

       Ambiguity and complex, challenging works would become part 
     of the Flynn's programming. Although Rogers said she had the 
     authority to manage programming, she chose not to exercise 
     it. This is the purview of artistic director Arnie Malina and 
     Bither, his predecessor.
       Bither came to the Flynn in 1988 from the Brooklyn Academy 
     of Music, where he curated experimental music and avante-
     garde jazz. Conversations with Rogers before he was hired 
     indicated the direction she wanted to take the theater. It 
     was not necessarily what one might have predicted, given the 
     Flynn's previous programming, Bither said.
       ``She said she wanted the kind of new thinking, and 
     sometimes provocative programming,'' Bither said. ``She 
     wanted the freshest, most interesting artists that are 
     happening, not just in New York City but around the world.''
       The notion that this kind of programming would work in a 
     city the size of Burlington was ``a leap of faith, to say the 
     least,'' Bither said. In those days, management would pin up 
     fliers for Flynn shows on trips to the supermarket, part of 
     the effort to fill the house, Bither recalled.
       A fund to honor Rogers, Andrea's Legacy Fund, was created 
     by the Flynn board to raise money for programming and 
     education, initiatives the board identified as key to Rogers' 
     tenure. Board chairman Fred ``Chico'' Lager said the goal of 
     raising $1.5 million in cash is nearly met. With deferred 
     donations, Andrea's Legacy Fund totals almost $2 million, he 
     said.
       ``Andrea is fiercely committed that we not retreat in any 
     way, as is the board,'' Lager said. ``She's leaving us in 
     great shape. The legacy fund will ensure that we will be able 
     to sustain everything that we are doing, and actually 
     continue to grow.''
       Rogers has her own ideas about her legacy, which she 
     believes is centered on connecting themes: artistic 
     excellence and community involvement. ``You never had one 
     without the other,'' she said. And though events are planned 
     around her retirement, including a free evening of 
     entertainment June 26 at the Flynn, called ``Exit Laughing,'' 
     Rogers has her own ideas about how she'd like to leave: 
     ``Personally,'' she said, ``I would've put a barrel on my 
     head and snuck out the door.''

                          ____________________