Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
As a student at Stuyvesant High School 16 years ago, Rebecca Neuwirth spent a lot of time hanging out with friends on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but rarely ventured inside. Then she spent a semester in Vienna, Austria, where, with the help of government-subsidized tickets, she attended performances and visited museums several times a week. And she noticed a change.
“We weren’t just hanging out anymore. Going to performances engaged us in debates on history and politics,” Ms. Neuwirth said.
Upon her return, Ms. Neuwirth decided to help make the arts accessible to teenagers in New York City. A few years later, her vision and persistence paid off, when a grant from the Citigroup Foundation helped form the nonprofit High5 Tickets for the Arts. In 10 years the organization has distributed 100,000 tickets at $5 a piece – to teenagers and, on occasion, their lucky adult guests.
It’s a great story that received recognition yesterday when the Montblanc Cultural Foundation presented Ms. Neuwirth with the Montblanc de la Culture Award. Montblanc created the award in 1992 to honor the people behind the scenes in the arts world. “The stars do wonderful work, but we wanted to bring attention to those who donate time and effort,” the chief executive of Montblanc North America, Jan-Patrick Schmitz, said.
The ceremony gave Ms. Neuwirth, who is now special projects director at American Jewish Committee, an opportunity to articulate her original vision.
“We’re building the audiences of tomorrow,” Ms. Neuwirth said, noting the incentive cultural institutions have to provide the discounted tickets. The benefits go deeper. “Exposure to the arts keeps us creative and open. It inspires us to have our best ideas. It keeps us open to learning.” There is, however, much work to be done. The executive director of High5, Ada Ciniglio, gave a sense of the task. New York City has 500,000 teenagers and last year High5 distributed 15,000 tickets. The organization primarily relies on word of mouth and the encouragement of teachers, mentors, and parents.
“There are a lot of competing forms of entertainment. Live entertainment is not popular with teenagers,” Ms. Ciniglio said.
Montblanc also announced the creation of a program yesterday that demonstrated how young people can be engaged. Not only did it give an $18,000 check to High5, it also arranged for a former principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre, Robert Hill, who is now the artistic director of Ballet de Monterrey, to tell the story of “Swan Lake” and teach a few steps from it. (“It sounds kind of sad,” 10-year-old Noemi Rosas of the Bronx said.) Montblanc also paid for 200 students to go the ballet yesterday afternoon.
But the world’s leading high-end pen maker could assist in another way. If teenagers had their own beautiful writing instruments, perhaps they’d spend more time writing and less time on movies and video games. And perhaps they’d develop the taste for for ballet, opera, and theater that would encourage them to take advantage of High5.
