1 Breakfast at Madeline's Read Online Free PDF Page B

Adirondack maple syrup on the outside but tough as a Mam et play inside, Gretchen had al most singlehandedly transformed the Arts Council from a genteel coffee klatch of lady landscape painters to a powerhouse quasi-public nonprofit corporation with a yearly budget of $200,000. Which was huge, by Saratoga standards. Gretchen's Arts Council was in volved in financing just about every theater opening, gallery exhibit, or other cultural event in the entire Saratoga County area. If you were a Saratoga Springs artist, you definitely wanted Gretchen Lang on your side.
    Gretchen's biggest coup came last year when, after a decade of ardent lobbying, she convinced the mayor and city council that what Saratoga needed to attract more tourists and keep business away from the malls was a glamorous new Cultural Arts Center right in the heart of downtown, which would be run, of course, by Gretchen herself. The city fathers voted to lease the old library building on Broadway to Gretchen and her Arts Council for the grand sum of one dollar a year for the next twenty-five years. Not bad. Especially since the building was in a great location, solidly built, and probably worth close to a million bucks.
    The Cultural Arts Center as envisioned by Gretchen would feature a grand, high-ceilinged gallery on the main floor for showcasing Saratoga painters and sculptors to the rich summer tourists; a plush three- hundred-seat theater with state-of-the-art lighting and sound equipment; plentiful studio, darkroom, and classroom space; and a host of other goodies. For the past month and a half , downtown traffic had been snarled by all the construction and renovation work that was being done to turn Gretchen's glorious vision into reality.
    Like a mother duck with her ducklings, Gretchen generally had artists in tow whenever I saw her. Today her flock included Bonnie Engels, the boxer/theater impresario , and four other artists who fell into the "struggling" category, like most artists in Saratoga (and everywhere else) . I knew everyone in today's en tourage, and except for Bonnie, some of whose shows I had truly enjoyed, I didn't think any of them was particularly talented. But maybe I was just being overly hard on them because they reminded me of myself, of who I used to be. And you certainly had to give them credit for trying. Who knows, maybe one of them would even break through one day.
    In any case, I was glad to see them. It gave me a break from contemplating Donald Penn's wasted life. "You guys having a party?" I asked.
    "You better believe it." Gretchen smiled, waving to her crew. "This is my trusty grant panel. We just fin ished giving out the NYFA grants."
    NYFA grants. Pronounced "knife-a." For starving New York artists, thar's gold in them thar initials .
    For those of you who have the good sense not to be starving New York artists, let me explain. Every year the state-funded New York Foundation for the Arts distributes grant money to arts councils sprinkled throughout the state, which in turn dole out the money to local artists. The Sar atoga Arts Council gets twenty- five grand a year, and has the highly sensitive job of divvying up the d ough among the eighty or so des perate local "emerging artists" who apply. The council can only say yes to about twenty of them. The losing applicants then go into deep depressions, take jobs at the post office, or both.
    It may not sound like there's a lot of money at stake, but these NYFA grant s are prestigious and can kick- start an artist's career. Putting that NYFA imprimatur of respectability on your resume can help you hustle larger grants, fellowships, and artist-in-residence gigs. And it's something to tell your parents when they ask you how come you're not going to law school already.
    Also, in Saratoga Springs, even one or two thousand dollars goes a long way. You can still rent a perfectly decent apartment for $350 a month up here.
    So I could see why Gretchen and her grant panelists would want