There also was some interesting discussion about developing a vision and an identity. And that is what we need.

We already have a scattering of arts stores. Picture downtown Oneonta as a thriving community of galleries, arts and crafts shops, studios, cafes — and don’t forget the Foothills Performing Arts Center.

The coffee shops are already here, and there are enough bars, pizza places and dollar stores. We need to decide how we want to start filling the six-to-eight empty storefronts that seem to be the normal state of affairs.

With the wealth and breadth of arts groups in Oneonta and numerous surrounding communities, the region has to stand out statistically in per capita arts and entertainment attractions.

We can build on those resources as a region, and we can build on that as an Oneonta downtown.

It was obvious in the final weeks of the campaign that Mayor-elect John Nader was spending time talking with people from the performing and fine arts, because he had developed a glimpse of downtown Oneonta as an arts community.

As mayor, Nader could turn that glimpse into a vision — one to be fulfilled by a concerted effort to plan not only the kind of downtown we want but also the kind that can be successful.

When I moved to Oneonta in 1983, many of the area’s arts groups were fledgling. Glimmerglass Opera was less than a decade old, the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts was barely a teenager, and Orpheus Theatre was still in the womb. Many groups throughout the region were in their formative stages.

Do area residents realize how fortunate they are to have such numbers of community theater groups, concert series, orchestras, arts councils, performing arts centers, historic theaters and summer theater?

And that’s not even mentioning the many groups and talent associated with the colleges, such as the Catskill Conservatory, the Yager Museum, and various choral and orchestral ensembles that involve both students and the community.

In the region there’s community theater in Edmeston, Sidney, Kortright, Franklin and Oneonta. Walton now has a coffeehouse. Bainbridge was a historic hall for bluegrass. Cooperstown has opera, summer theater, concert series, Milford has a former church for contra dancing and other performing arts and Gilbertsville is becoming its own little arts enclave.

Stamford has Friends of Music; Roxbury has RAG-time, and Middletown the Erpf Center. There’s the DCHA in Delhi, the WKC in East Meredith and CCCA in Norwich.

Oneonta is surrounded by the arts and is a natural location to be a hub for a region rich in all media of creativity. We can do it if we want it and put our minds to it. Just ask someone like Peter Macris.

Five years ago when Macris was ready to turn the corner on his dream of a performing arts center in Oneonta, he said, "We have the makings here of being a center for the performing arts. We hope to be a part of a resurgence and development of the performing arts in this area that will enhance tourism."

Macris had that dream since the 1980s, and the result today is the first structure of the Foothills Performing Arts Center on Market Street. And he had plenty of experience making dreams come true.

Now retired as a professor of German at the State University College at Oneonta, Macris helped found the Glimmerglass Opera 30 years ago. It has developed into an internationally acclaimed arts institution. And in 1984 he teamed with William Campbell of Delhi to launch Orpheus Theatre.

Writing in The Daily Star in 1991 of the area’s arts scene and the increasing need for a performing arts center, Macris said:

"An actor and musician who lives in New York City and this area once called the region `our own little Florence’ in referring to the extent, quality and variety of its arts."

Hyperbole aside, Macris added that this region "will continue to strike the visitor as a place of unexpected copiousness in the performing arts."

The foundation has been laid by an older generation. It is up to today’s younger leaders in the community and in the arts to pick up the palettes and batons and rid downtown Oneonta of its identity crisis.

Thanks to Macris and numerous others, the seeds have been sown and many already are blooming. Let’s help them grow and flourish.

Cary Brunswick is managing editor of The Daily Star and can be reached at 432-1000, ext. 217 or cary@thedailystar.com.