Opening Remarks
Friday, March 27, 1998, 9:30-10:00 a.m.
By: Kathy Brew

The conference kicked off with Nicki Clarke, Executive Director of the New York State Council on the Arts, and Ted Berger, Executive Director of the New York Foundation for the Arts, introducing themselves as “co-hosts” for the conference, posing several questions, many of them amusing, that underscored how ubiquitous technology is in all of our lives.

They were followed by Earle Mack, Chairman of NYSCA, who welcomed the conference attendees and commented on the importance of arts and business partnerships.

He then introduced Stanley S. Litow, Vice- President of Corporate-Community Relations for IBM, one of the partners making the conference possible, and Richard Schwartz, Vice Chairman of NYSCA. Following their brief remarks, including a joke about the value of brevity, Chairman Earle Mack read welcoming remarks from Governor George Pataki, emphasizing that this conference brings together two of New York’s most dynamic industries – the arts and technology – and the importance of New York’s remaining “the state of the arts.”