When art lovers think of destination cities for the visual and performing arts they think of places like New York, Philadelphia, Florence, Paris, and Rome. Now add West Windsor to the list. Hard to imagine? Not at all according to the vision of Jeff Nathanson, the newly appointed Acting Executive Director of the West Windsor Arts Council, who is overseeing the creation of a state-of-the-art Arts Center in the old Princeton Junction Firehouse on Alexander Road.
Nathanson is in charge of raising money to build the center and to establish a stable infrastructure to turn it into a world class center for art with 7,”000 square feet of studio, gallery, and performance space. He is also responsible for developing arts programs that are relevant and accessible to the community. Key to the quality of these programs, says Nathanson, will be collaboration with organizations such as the Princeton Dance and Theatre Studio, which is developing a pre-professional youth ballet company and offers instruction by a faculty that commutes from New York to PDT’s studios in Princeton Forrestal Village.
A major leap forward towards Nathanson’s goal took place when the West Windsor Arts Council received its first major corporate contribution — from Diversified TK Realty, the owners of the Nassau Park shopping center. DDR has pledged a $30,”000 donation that will be renewed on an annual basis. Nathanson says this is significant because it constitutes the young organization’s first step toward a stabilized budget.
“We now have some significant funding and plans in place to move forward,” he says. “It elevates our start-up organization onto a whole new level. I’m very enthusiastic because I’ve seen a lot of towns talk about building an arts center to serve the community but it never happens. Here it’s really happening, and it’s very exciting.”
Nathanson, 49, is a resident of West Windsor who has long has his feet firmly planted in the two worlds of art and music. He also has an energetic “build it and they will come” belief that West Windsor will someday be a magnet for the art world. As owner of an art consulting firm called Contemporary Integrated Art, Nathanson has led numerous projects including the selection of art for the new Princeton Library as well as a sculpture exhibition and mural project for the Princeton University Art Museum.
It was serendipity that brought Nathanson and the West Windsor Arts Council together. Four years ago, he and his wife, Connie Tell, an artist, and their eight-year-old daughter moved to West Windsor from San Francisco. When some new neighbors learned of the Nathansons’ expertise in art, they told them about the plan to bring an arts center to town.
“When we learned of plans to convert an old firehouse in Princeton Junction we got involved immediately,” Nathanson says. “We became part of the core group that started formulating plans. It was fun because we envisioned something here similar to what I ran in California, which was one of the top-ranked art centers in the country. I saw no reason why we couldn’t have an art center of the same caliber in our town. We wanted our center to be complementary to existing centers of art, not competing with but adding to the cultural fabric of our region.”
Nathanson was born in Los Angeles. He is ruled by two passions, art and music, and he has managed to balance both throughout his life. As an art major at UCLA he studied painting and printmaking. As a music minor he also studied music theory and performance with guitar as his instrument of choice. After graduation he moved on to the University of California at Santa Cruz where he continued his studies of sculpture, printmaking, and painting. He also studied the music of non-western cultures.
In 1978 he went to San Francisco and attempted to carve out a living as an artist and musician. He became a partner in a contemporary art gallery called the Nathan Art Gallery near the San Francisco Civic Center. At the same time he played in bands and did session work as a recording musician. It was through his work with a number of different art galleries that he realized he was interested in pursuing non-profit management. In 1990 he was appointed director of San Francisco Open Studios. At the same time he continued to play, perform and even compose music, becoming the music director for a theater group.
Then he was offered a position as executive director of the Richmond Art Center in the East Bay. It was his work there from 1991 to 2000 that solidified his interest in nonprofit arts management and museum work. Nathanson started focusing on the visual arts, curating, and nonprofit art management. Four years ago he received an offer he couldn’t refuse, even though it meant relocating his family across the country. He was appointed director of the International Sculpture Center in Hamilton located at Grounds for Sculpture. In September, 2000, the family moved to West Windsor.
“Since I was working in Hamilton we had a wide choice of places to live,” says Nathanson. “We did a lot of research and the balance of good schools, transportation, cost of living, and proximity to cultural centers like New York, Philadelphia, and Princeton added up to this was where we wanted to be.”
When the WWAC was ready to make the move forward from the drawing board to reality, it needed a strong leader to bring everything together. Nathanson couldn’t have been more perfectly qualified for the role. In addition to his professional experience and personal accomplishments in the world of art and music, he had worked with the California Arts Council for seven years as a review panelist. One of his responsibilities was to help review grant proposals from arts organizations.
Nathanson soon discovered that the township was an ideal birthplace for an arts center. “People here tend to have a high level of education, income, and appreciation for art,” he says. “They want cultural opportunities for their families and are willing to travel far away to get them. So far we’ve had nothing to focus the tremendous amount of art energy in this town, and our vision is to provide that focus.”
The West Windsor Arts Council plans to use the firehouse as the headquarters but will also sponsor performances at other venues such as the stage at Grover Middle School, in effect, says Nathanson, creating a network of performance outlets.
Prior to receiving its most recent grant from DDR, West Windsor Township received two grants totaling over $100,”000 for improvements to the exterior of the old firehouse. The money will go toward improving the landscape and the streets around the building. Some of the funds will be used to bring the firehouse up to compliance with federal code established by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Nathanson hopes that work on the exterior improvements to the firehouse will begin this month or early October. The next big project on his plate is to hold a kick-off fundraising event towards the goal of raising up to $1,”000,”000 for renovation of the building itself.
Nathanson is confident about West Windsor’s ability to flourish as a center for art. “I think this community has a promising future for arts and culture. It’s a great location with great people, the perfect mix of ingredients that can make it a known destination for art lovers. It will be a place where they can bring their families to take in an exhibition or performance or take a class or workshop. This center will put West Windsor on the map in the art world.”
by Euna Kwon Brossman
