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By ROBERT BAXTER
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN
Willard Scott leavened the Regional Business/Arts Summit with laughter as he recalled the comic high points of a 50- year broadcasting career. But the popular NBC weatherman also summed up the purpose of the fourth annual summit when he referred to the "begat" factor.
Scott recalled what happens when a child is exposed to a symphony orchestra or a benefactor plants a tree or puts a bench in a park.
"That's when begat comes into play," he noted in his luncheon keynote address Friday during the annual summit at the South Jersey Performing Arts Center on Camden's Waterfront.
"One act like that can start the restoration of a whole neighborhood or inspire other people to add to the community."
The 225 business and arts leaders in attendance took away two important ways to do that from panel discussions preceding Scott's address.
Molly Sasse, executive director of Allied Arts of Greater Chattanooga (Tenn.), made "an impassioned plea" to the South Jersey cultural and business community to form a United Arts Fund to provide financial support to the region' s arts institutions.
"Public funding will not drive the train," Sasse said. She noted arts groups typically receive only 15 percent of their operating budgets from combined government, foundation and corporate support.
"A United Arts Fund is the best approach for funding the arts," she added. "It reaches people in the work place and generates the unrestricted operating support that is the lifeblood of arts organizations."
Dorothy W. Ryall of Columbia, S.C., showed how a public arts project can galvanize a community. The executive director of the Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington Counties told how she united artists and businessmen in support of a project that raised funds by placing steel palmetto trees in public spaces.
Judi London, executive director of the Camden Waterfront Marketing Bureau, is already organizing a meeting in May to plan a public art project for Camden's downtown and waterfront.
Summit co-chairman Fred Frank of PNC Advisors welcomed the idea of a United Arts Fund.
"In the wake of 9/11, there is a renewed interest in charitable giving," Frank said. "We've got to find a way to take advantage of that interest and channel funds to the arts community."
Dorothy Rivers, acting executive director of the Arts and Business Partnership, called a United Arts Fund " crucial."
"This has to become a focus of our organization," continued Rivers, who previously was executive director of the Haddonfield Symphony.
"I think the arts and business leaders are ready to come together to do this. The time is right."
The Regional Business/Arts Summit attracted the largest attendance since it was first held in 1999. The event included addresses by political and arts leaders and and presentations by panelists from several states.
Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, D-Camden, celebrated the vitality of the South Jersey arts community and guaranteed the region would continue to receive 25 percent of grants awarded by the state Council on the Arts.
After registering, attendees were invited by Collingswood artist Sallie Paris to put their artistic stamp on a large mural. By the time the summit got under way at 9 a.m., the mural was decked with flowers, slogans and dollar signs.
For the first time, the summit featured an exposition that encouraged networking between businessmen and artists. Some 20 regional corporations and cultural institutions manned booths that displayed their brochures.
Several businesses stepped into leadership roles at the summit.
Last year, Steven L. Lubetkin, vice president/director of corporate communications for Princeton-based Fleet, attended the summit for the first time. On Thursday, Fleet served as presenting sponsor of the summit.
"We have a strong commitment to the arts," explained Lubetkin, who lives in Cherry Hill. "Fleet has a comprehensive strategic plan for supporting the South Jersey community. The arts are an important component of that."
Other businesses joining the summit for the first time were Conectiv and St. Lawrence Cement. Michael Willmann of WMSH Marketing Communications served as chairman of the event.
Panelists from several states shared success stories in creating partnerships between businesses and cultural groups.
Mary Karr of Dayton, Ohio, showed how NCR Corp. supports the arts. Mary Louise Fazzano, managing director of Changing Our World, encouraged arts leaders to leverage support from businesses by learning to communicate in "a corporate language."
Robert Krumbine, vice president of special events for Charlotte Center City Partners, related how the arts and business have worked to revive the downtown area of the North Carolina city.
Adding their voices to the summit were Barbara Rambo of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and James C. Kellogg of the Community Foundation of New Jersey.
