Our Mission Statement

Overview
            In 2000, leading citizens from various sectors of the city of Oneonta incorporated the Foothills Performing Arts Center, a forum for cultural and civic activity conceived to serve the needs of Chenango, Delaware, and Otsego Counties in central New York. Following the acquisition of a site on Market Street in the city’s historic downtown district, the initial phase of construction was completed with the opening of the Production Center in 2005. Completion of the entire facility, which will house a large theater and considerable civic and exhibition space, is slated for 2009.
            Foothills Performing Arts Center is a public, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) charitable institution, exempt from federal taxation. Its primary mission is to provide cultural enrichment to the tri-county area (with an eye, eventually, to an even wider radius), not only in terms of arts events, but in educational and outreach initiatives as well, thus stimulating the economy in diverse ways: attracting and retaining professionals and businesses, and helping to keep young people in the area after college.

Board of Directors
            Led initially by Eugene Bettiol, Sr., the late Eugene Bettiol, Jr., Arnold Drogen, and Peter Macris, the board of directors has expanded to 16 members from throughout the tri-county region and is dedicated to fulfilling its responsibilities of management, fund-raising and financial oversight to advance the center’s mission. A Development Committee has been formed to assist with solicitation of major contributions.

Mission and Values
      The Foothills Performing Arts Center is a cultural, educational and civic center for the entire central New York region. Integral to its quotidian mission are:  

• QUALITY PERFORMANCES that will strive to attain the highest standards in the performing arts and offering stimulating fare to all social and economic sectors of the community.

• RENTABLE OPPORTUNITIES of the facility’s flexible spaces for the public, businesses, local colleges and civic organizations. Ideal for family gatherings, seminars, classes, rehearsals, workshops, trade shows, and other events.

• STRONG PERSONAL SERVICE, with scrupulous attention to detail provided to our clients by the center’s staff. The center’s enticing surroundings foster a warm and inviting atmosphere to create a memorable experience for the visitor.

• POSITIVE COMMUNITY RELATIONS. All levels of the organization recognize that the center has been built to meet the needs of the entire community.

            The tri-county region at the heart of the Foothills Performing Arts Center’s focus is exceptionally rich in artistic and cultural activity. A few notable examples are Glimmerglass Opera in Springfield, the Little Delaware Youth Ensemble in Delhi, the Upper Susquehanna Contra dance in Milford and Cooperstown, the Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival, and the New York State Historical Association. The Foothills Performing Arts Center is emerging as a central magnet for many artistic events, in-house generated (e.g. Footlights Kids), or produced by renting organizations (e.g. visiting chamber music groups, rock bands, etc.).
            It is a statistical fact that Boston generates more economic activity through its arts organizations than through its sports teams. When one considers the sports teams in question (Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, Celtics), the implications are enormous for the kind of similar effect the Foothills Performing Arts Center will have on the immediate, and not-so-immediate, region. Just as there are area residents who travel to Albany or Binghamton for cultural or civic events, so will there be residents of those two cities who will travel to Oneonta for the same reason.
            In October 2007 Foothills was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to conduct The Big Read in May 2008. The Big Read is an initiative of the NEA created to reverse, or at least stem, the alarming decline in reading for pleasure and enlightenment in the United States. Studies show that fewer than 50% of American adults (especially between the ages of 18 and 35) engage in private reading. The Big Read focuses on a specific book from a list provided by the NEA and communities sponsor activities (films, plays, competitions, panel discussions, lectures, etc.) for a period of one month to stimulate interest and participation, and, one hopes, the desire to read the target work of literature. This is just one of the many contributions the center makes to the educational life of the region and it is significant that the National Endowment for the Arts has deemed Foothills, in its infancy, to be already of sufficient stature to award it the grant.
            In addition to being a center for the performing arts and educational outreach, Foothills also offers civic space for trade shows and exhibitions. There are innumerable ways in which this aids and stimulates the local and regional business communities. Moreover, the many multi-purpose spaces at Foothills have already been used for citizens’ gatherings, election polls, conferences, symposia, auctions, receptions, etc. and there is much evidence to suggest that they will be increasingly used towards these ends. Clearly, the Foothills Performing Arts Center is a forum for important and animated community interaction on multiple levels.
            At the present time, Foothills Performing Arts Center is providing enormous stimulus to the region, and this is happening in the Production Center alone, but a microcosm of the considerably larger facility already under construction. When the actual 618-seat theater and accompanying exhibition spaces are completed in 2009, the industry and vitality originating at the center will be multiplied several-fold.