The Writers & Books Capital Campaign

Writing the Next Chapter

A Message from Jim and Jan Gleason
Honorary Campaign Co-Chairs

Dear Friends,

Would you be surprised to discover that one of the nation's leading literary centers is right here in Rochester?

There are many wonderful things to discover about Writers & Books. Like its peer centers in Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis and in cities throughout the country, Writers & Books offers our community a wide range of life-long learning opportunities. As you read through this page, you'll probably be astounded by the depth and diversity of Writers & Books' programs offered at sites throughout Monroe County, at the Center on University Avenue, and at the Gell Center in Ontario County. For twenty years, Writers & Books has been helping people of every age and from every walk of life find meaning and pleasure in reading and writing.

We are proud to be longtime supporters of Writers & Books. When asked to be the Honorary Co-chairs of the Writing the Next Chapter Capital Campaign, we didn't hesitate a moment before saying "yes." We appreciate having Writers & Books as our good neighbors on University Avenue. But much more than that, we have actively participated in workshops, attended many events and have seen firsthand the level of fulfillment that Writers & Books brings to their life-long learning mission. In short, we believe in the value of Writers & Books and are pleased to help them reach their goals, and urge you to join with us in helping to make this important campaign a success.

If you haven't already, it's time for you to discover more about Writers & Books. And when you do, we are sure that you will want to join us in Writing the Next Chapter.

Sincerely,

James Gleason                 Janis Gleason

A History of Community Service

• 1980 Writers & Books first opens on South Avenue in Rochester.
• 1985 Writers & Books moves to 740 University Avenue into a former police precinct station, designed by noted Rochester architect and illustrator Claude Bradgon, located in Rochester's lively Neighborhood of the Arts.
• 1988 Writers & Books bequeathed The Gell House, located in the Finger Lakes region, by a benefactor, Kenneth Gell, to be used for "creative purposes." The new retreat center draws writers from around the country.
• 1992 Writers & Books completes work on The Gleason Lodge, at the newly-renamed Gell Center of the Finger Lakes, allowing for larger groups to have access to programs utilizing the Center's beautiful location.
• 1999 Writers & Books purchases the building at 740 University Avenue and immediately begins planning to upgrade and expand the facility for better community use.

Our Mission

Writers & Books
Promotes Reading and Writing
as Life-Long Activities for
People of All Ages and Backgrounds

Who We Serve

Each year our programs and services engage more than 25,000 Rochester-area residents of all ages and backgrounds in locations throughout the community.

How We Serve Them

Our programs reach people of all levels of interest in reading and writing and are designed to help people discover the important part that literature plays in our individual lives and the life of our community.

Where We Serve the Community

Writers & Books offers programs at our two locations—740 University Avenue in Rochester and at the Gell Center of the Finger Lakes in Bristol, NY. In addition, programs take place in settings you might not necessarily expect, including senior centers, city recreation centers, settlement houses, schools, and at the free Annual Fall Festival of Reading. Each year our programs extend throughout our community, touching the lives of individuals that would not otherwise have access to quality literary programs, or supplementing current educational or cultural programs.

Award Winning

Writers & Books has achieved wide recognition, not only within the Rochester community, but also at the state and national levels, for both the quality of our programs and the extent of our outreach.

• The Lila Wallace - Reader's Digest Fund Grant - awarded through a competitive national process, Writers & Books received the highest level of funding given to any literary center in the United States.
• The New York State Council on the Arts designation of Writers & Books as one of New York State's "Primary Arts Organizations"—given to organizations judged to "make a substantial contribution to the state's cultural life."
• The Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce's Arts Award
• Arts for Greater Rochester's award for "Significant Contributions to the Arts in Rochester."
• Rochester Institute of Technology's College of Liberal Arts award to "A Friend of the Liberal Arts in the Rochester Community."
• The Rochester Bibliophile Society's Award for "Significant Contributions to the Rochester Reading Scene."

Fiscal Stability

Over the course of the past nineteen years much effort has been invested in establishing a solid base for the effective management of our organization. Vitally important has been establishing a hard-working and talented staff, and a dedicated and engaged Board of Directors. As a result of this focus on effective management, Writers & Books has been successful in expanding earned income, through increased programming, and contributed income, through attracting new donors on a local and national basis.

Now, as we enter our twentieth year of operation, Writers & Books is in strong financial shape. Fund raising efforts have never been more successful. During the past two years, Writers & Books has dramatically increased its funding for operating support by more than 200%. In each of these years, Writers & Books has successfully raised over $300,000 from private and public sources for annual support. As a result of these efforts, programming has been dramatically expanded.

Writers & Books has now matured as an arts organization to the point where we can look optimistically toward the future and plan specifically and creatively to ensure long-term artistic and financial growth. We have the opportunity to take enormous steps toward guaranteeing our future by expanding and upgrading our facilities and by putting into place funds to insure the future short-term and long-term needs of the organization.

A Vision for the Future

740 University Avenue

In 1999, Writers & Books purchased the building and land at 740 University Avenue from the City of Rochester, a facility we had previously leased from the City since 1985. While the building's past history, designed as a police precinct by one of Rochester's most celebrated architects, Claude Bragdon, lends a certain charm to it today, it also brings with it some elements that inhibit its fully serving our needs. We now have an unprecedented opportunity to create a true physical center for literary activity in the community. Plans for renovation and expansion of the building will creatively solve the issues of ADA requirements, reconfigure the building for arts use, and create an addition that is sensitive to the original design of the building while adding a space intended for contemporary use not anticipated in the original design.

Expanded Programs

Expansion of our programs as we enter the next century are based up on these overall goals:

To increase the number and types of participants in Writers & Books programs, and to deepen their participation, by stressing the essential relationship between reader and writer and by promoting a sense of community that supports and reinforces that relationship.

This new plan, in effect, widens our mission to reach beyond writers and writing, and joins together the twin aspects of literature: reading and writing. Our program offerings will expand to include new initiatives aimed at readers: books discussions, reader - writer symposiums, and more.

New Technologies

As we enter this new millennium it is clear that the ways in which we communicate with each other, on a global scale, are rapidly changing. To keep up-to-date on technological innovations in communication, Writers & Books will be establishing a new computer-based learning and publishing center, to be called LIT Lab, within the renovated facility. This state-of-the-art facility will allow people of all ages and backgrounds, and of varying levels of technological experience, to discover the ways in which their words, and thoughts, can find their way out to others in an increasingly complex world.

Distance Learning

While we strive to improve our facilities in order to accommodate increased programming in our home, we also realize that for many travel from their homes or communities can be difficult or impossible. With that in mind, Writers & Books will be initiating, through improved facilities and equipment, ground-breaking programs that will bring the possibilities of participating in literary expression to the disabled, the home-bound, and hose in rural or distant communities.

Writers & Books is seeking to raise $1.7 million by December 2003

By raising $1 million we can buy, upgrade and expand our building, allowing us to meet all codes for Handicapped Accessibility, including:

• installing elevator, chair lift, accessible bathrooms, fountains, and electrical outlets
• Preserve an historically significant building while reconfiguring it for more efficient use
• Double classroom and meeting space
• Create a new technology learning center
• Create a new library/cafe space for more casual community programming
• Expand & upgrade office space for improved staff efficiency
• Increase street level visibility by creating a new, more welcoming entryway
• Build a new lecture hall for increased programming

By raising $.5 million we can establish endowment funds to stabilize our financial future

• $250,000 for Program Funds
• $250,000 for Facilities, Equipment, and Maintenance

Helping to Write the Next Chapter

Dear Friends,

This is an exciting time for me to be President of the Board of Directors of Writers & Books. I believe Writers & Books is unique among cultural arts institutions in our community. I know of no other arts organization with the depth and breadth of programming such as Writers & Books offers. Not only does Writers & Books encourage life-long learning through reading and writing for adults -- Writers & Books helps young people build self-esteem and self-awareness through writing, and encourages children to become life-long readers.

When most people in Rochester think of literary arts organizations, they immediately envision authors reading and lecturing in front of quiet audiences. While Writers & Books does bring nationally recognized authors to Rochester, you would be just as apt to find these writers in a small-group workshop or visiting a school as in front of a large audience. Over the past twenty years, Writers & Books has offered programs in places you might not necessarily expect -- on hiking trails and in canoes; in hospitals, prisons, senior centers, nursing homes, and settlement houses; at a free community festival of reading attended by thousands and at a quiet coffeehouse. Writers & Books encourages people of all ages and from all walks of life to use words to illuminate, empower, restore and even heal. Writers & Books is a community asset that may be better recognized among those in the national literary arts community than it is here at home. The capital campaign now underway will change all that.

I am also proud to be president of an Arts Organization that is mature, fiscally sound and well-managed. Executive Director Joe Flaherty and his staff have built an organization that we should all be proud to support.

This capital campaign comes at a critical time. Demand for programming has never been greater and many innovations are on the horizon. Writers & Books is breaking new ground on a national scale through the development of distance learning programs that will bring literary arts and expression to the homebound, the disabled and to those in rural communities. In addition, the campaign will assure that an architecturally and historically significant Claude Bragdon building in the city's lively Neighborhood of the Arts will be preserved.

I hope you will follow Jim and Jan Gleasons' lead and give generously to help Writers & Books "Write the Next Chapter." We would welcome the opportunity to tell you more about Writers & Books and the Capital Campaign. Please feel free to contact either Joe Flaherty or me at 473-2590.

Sincerely,

Barry B. Clements
President, Board of Directors

Naming Opportunities

740 University Avenue

• Lecture Hall $350,000.00
• Cafe $150,000.00
• Main Entrance Pavilion $100,000.00
• Garden Walk University Entrance $100,000.00
• Elevator $50,000.00
• Bookstore/Gift Shop $50,000.00
• Front Patio Cafe and Garden $50,000.00
• Library $50,000.00
• Board Room $35,000.00
• Technology/Learning Center (LIT Lab) $35,000.00
• Classroom Spaces (4) $35,000.00 each
• Administrative Suite $10,000.00
• Conference Room $10,000.00
• Office Spaces (8) $5,000.00 each
• Garden Benches $3,500.00 each
• Lobby Naming Wall Recognition $2,500.00 each
• Lecture Hall Seats (175) $1,000.00 each
• Library Recognition Wall $500.00 each

Endowment Naming Opportunities

• Building, Facilities & Equipment Fund $250,000.00
• Life-Long Learning Fund $100,000.00
• Youth Education Fund $100,000.00
• Readings and Lecture Program Fund $50,000.00

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