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Continuedbudget of $400,000 and entertains 30,000n n o n ln o year, but Moon soys its cOiiuuunityroots are an integral part of its artisticphilosophy.%u201cMy objective is never to strive for artfor-art%u2019s-sake,%u201d she says. %u201cThat wouldnever supported here. This theater has atwo-fold purpose: For the artists, it%u2019s a professional place to work and get a quoteunquote %u2018living wage,%u2019, and for the community it provides plays that are enlightening aswell as entertaining. We only stage worksthat are reflective of their attitudes andconcerns%u2014though I won%u2019t say of theirbeliefs. I don%u2019t think they should agree witheverything they see here.%u201dMUST START SMALLFailure to adhere to the start-small principle, says Pope, caused the collapse of apair of efforts by BAM in the late 1970s andearly 1980s to establish a resident repertorycompany on a grand scale. Under two artistic directors, Frank Dunlop and DavidJones, the companies put on four seasons ofclassic repertory plays to decidedly mixedreviews, lost several hundred thousand dollars, and folded.%u201cLichtenstein and Dunlop and Joneswanted a Royal Shakespeare Company inBrooklyn,%u201d says Pope. %u201cIt was a very largegamble, and it didn%u2019t work because youdon%u2019t have the same institutional supportfor theater here as you do abroad, andbecause they didn%u2019t pay attention to thegrass roots. There was no slow building of asolid foundation.%u201dThat foundation, in Brooklyn, now includes a diffuse community of artists andperformers scattered throughout the borough%u2019s neighborhoods. This diffusion is onequality that distinguishes Brooklyn%u2019s cultural atmosphere from that of Manhattan.Burl Hash, founder of Prospect Park%u2019sG o w an u s A rts E x c h a n g e fo u n d e r E lis e Long p o s e s w ith B ro o k ly n risin g in th eb ackg ro u n d , at h er s p a c e n ear d o w n to w n . L ike m a n y a rtis ts , sh e fo u n d M a n h a tta n to beto o ex p e n s iv e , an d th e B ro o klyn a rts s c e n e ripe fo r a c h a n g e . (P h o e n ix /K irk P hoto)%u201cCelebrate Brooklyn%u201d summer performance series, now in its eighth year, saysthis distinctive quality is an advantage to beprized.%u201cBrooklyn is a lower density place thanManhattan,%u201d says Hash. %u201cThe artistic community should be decentralized%u2014in fact thebest way for artists to protect themselvesagainst gentrification is to integrate themselves in the community.%u201dLACK OF ARTISTS%u2019 GHETTOThe lack of an %u201cartists%u2019 ghetto%u201d in Brooklyn doesn%u2019t bother Hash in the least. %u201cArtists have to be involved in the community,not just with each other. I don%u2019t like thingslike Westbeth, which amounts to a kind ofwarehousing of artists. It becomes very ingrown,%u201d he says.Instead, Hash talks about the arts inBrooklyn%u2014and the Celebrate Brooklyn festival in particular%u2014as a %u201cshowcase ofethnic diversity.%u201d His music program forCelebrate Brooklyn this year included rock,jazz, soul, salsa, heavy metal%u2014and the audiences over the years have been as diverseas the programming.%u201cWe had a rock concert once and half thepeople in the audience were seniorcitizens,%u201d Hash recalls. %u201cA lot of themreally like the music, but before, there wasno safe place for them to go hear it.%u201dIsolation is not a problem for impressarios like Pope, Hash and Moon, who are constantly brought into contact with other artisis ihrough their work. Bui ine individualartist or performer who chooses to makethe break from the psychological comfortsof the Manhattan arts scene still faces someloneliness.The image of Brooklyn as a place of isolation where the arts will die has been sustained on many fronts by Manhattan artistsand critics who claim that skyrocketing realW e d o n 't see the discrepancybetw een Brooklyn andM anhattan because p len ty o fdancers w ho w ork here alsow ork in M an hattan.estate prices will drive Manhattan artsgroups into the %u201couter boroughs%u201d and so todestruction or at least sterility.This view was articulated in an article bycritic Erika Munk in the May 13 VillageVoice. Munk argues that City real estatepolicies would drive many arts organizations into other boroughs, where they wouldlose audiences and also stunt the growth of%u201cindigenous art groups%u201d which could notstand the competition from Manhattanquality groups.Elise Long, a dancer and choreographerwho organized the Gowanus Arts Exchange,said the article %u201cexhibited a kind of snobbery. We don%u2019t see the discrepancy betweenManhattan and Brooklyn, because plenty ofdancers%u2014including myself%u2014who work inBrooklyn also work in Manhattan. 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