When Philip McGrath opened the Iron Horse Grill in Pleasantville 13 years ago, there were 10 empty storefronts on Wheeler Avenue, where the restaurant is located.
Today there is just one, due largely in part to the business that has been brought into the town by the Jacob Burns Film Center, now in its 10th year, and located just around the corner from McGrath”™s restaurant.
As the host of more than 200,000 movie-goers, 450 films and 150 special events annually, Dominick Balletta, managing director of Jacob Burns, said he and the other directors at the film center see it as a central hub of the community ”“ the film community, that is.
“We see ourselves as the center of a community and the community is tied to understanding and exploration through film,” Balletta said. “People are coming in because a lot of our programming you can”™t find in other theaters in the region.”
That unique function of Jacob Burns as a cultural center has turned it into a highly successful organization with a heavy emphasis on education. Balletta said the center works with roughly 85 percent of the school districts in Westchester to provide educational series and programming for 12,000 children a year, both at the individual schools and on site in the center”™s 27,000-square-foot media arts lab, which opened down the block from the theater in December 2008.
“The investment that we make in Westchester”™s schoolchildren of all ages is vital in the long term,” Balletta said.
He said that in addition to ticket sales and membership fees, Jacob Burns must raise more than $2 million annually to underwrite all of the center”™s programs, “and a big portion of that is our commitment to access.”
Jacob Burns, a nonprofit organization, finances all of the educational programs it provides for Westchester schoolchildren, including paying for equipment to be brought to the schools, students to be bussed to the center and for students to take classes at the media arts lab. The center also works with the Boys and Girls Club and the county”™s juvenile detention system, among other charitable ventures.
“We want to make sure that there”™s no barrier to exposing students to these skills,” Balletta said.
Last year, the center totaled $5.4 million in revenue, including $2.6 million in fundraising and charitable contributions. Of that, $1.9 million was devoted to education programs and another $2.2 million went toward film programming.
When the center first opened in 2001, under executive director Stephen Apkon, organizers had hoped for 600 members in the first year of the theater”™s operation. Instead, that number was eclipsed within days, with the center now totaling more than 6,000 members ”“ “many of them longstanding champions of the programming and the programs,” Balletta said.
Both McGrath and Bill Flooks, president of the Pleasantville Chamber of Commerce, said Jacob Burns fulfills a vital role in bringing people from Westchester and beyond into the community.
“The Burns has a symbiotic relationship with other businesses in the village,” McGrath said. “The synergy they create brings people to town. People look at your business ”“ whether it be a restaurant or a bookstore or a coffee shop ”“ and they see it.”
Flooks said the center has turned Pleasantville into a cultural destination.
“The Burns made Pleasantville a cultural stop in Westchester. It brings people from a lot of surrounding communities and up from the city.”
With 40 full-time staff, 60 part-time staff and educators, another 200 volunteers who assist with the center”™s educational programs across the county, and a three-building, 47,500-square-foot complex, Balletta said Jacob Burns is well-equipped to further its mission of film exhibition and education.
