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June 25, 2009

Arts group serious about St. Mary's

Effort begins to raise money to buy former Salem church

By Chris Cassidy

SALEM — Supporters of an arts center at the former St. Mary's Italian Church have spoken with bankers, lawyers and an architect and plan to host fundraisers and contact corporate sponsors — signs, they say, that they are serious about their proposal.

"I want to give this everything I can give it," said Joe Cultrera, who came up with the idea for a Salem Community Arts Center.

"If we can actually do this and raise a significant amount of money and put together a good business plan and present that to the Mission, and if they're dealing with us in good faith, I assume we'll have an arts center at St. Mary's."

That may sound like a lot of "ifs," but organizers say they are optimistic.

They hope to tap a variety of sources: small, grass-roots fundraising efforts, bank loans, grants and larger corporate donations.

A benefit at CinemaSalem is planned for July 9. The group also plans to seek help from an Italian-American organization interested in preserving history. Cultrera hopes to reach out to the contacts he built up while filming and screening "Hand of God."

"It's going to take a lot of different components to make it happen," said Matt Caruso, another organizer.

But will it be enough?

The Salem Mission, which bought the church after the archdiocese closed it, has its own plans to transform St. Mary's into 20 apartments for the homeless.

The Mission has given the arts group extra time to come up with a firm offer — until the Mission is awarded state money for its housing project, a process expected to take between three and five months.

The church is valued at about $500,000, but there are other factors at play. The Mission isn't saying how much it wants for the building, and Cultrera isn't disclosing how much his group aims to raise.

"We hope they're reasonable," Cultrera said. "If they're going to set some million-dollar price tag on the thing or something that's unattainable or ridiculous, then what's the point?"

But officials at the Mission yesterday reiterated a promise made at Monday night's City Council meeting — that it genuinely wants to keep the door open.

"We said we were serious, and we meant it," Mission President Andrew Oliver said.

Cultrera won't say how much the group has collected so far, other than to peg it in the "thousands." Many of the donations have come from a recent fundraiser at Strega and from several former parishioners.

Caruso said the group will also look outside Salem for donations.

"There is still wealth out there in different places, and we believe there are opportunities to make some connections with individuals who will find this very appealing," Caruso said.

While the art center's nonprofit paperwork is processed, the group is using the Salem Main Streets' 501(c)(3) status, which enables donors to get a tax write-off for their contributions. Cultrera said they're also keeping a record of donors and their contributions.

If their effort fails and donors want their money back, they'll get reimbursed, he said.

But he isn't considering that possibility yet.

"I have great faith in these kinds of things," Cultrera said. "Nobody would have thought we'd be at this point right now."

Staff writer Chris Cassidy can be reached at ccassidy@salem news.com.

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Arts group serious about St. Mary's
by By Chris Cassidy , , Thu Jun 25, 2009, 09:35 AM EDT
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