BAM... and Then It Hit Me

by Karen Brooks Hopkins

Overview

President Emerita of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Karen Brooks Hopkins pens BAM…and Then It Hit Me, an inspiring memoir of her 36 years at the iconic cultural institution, America's oldest performing arts center. The book has a sharp focus on concepts such as leadership, innovation, urban revitalization (including the transformation of Brooklyn from Manhattan Outpost to the coolest neighborhood on the planet), as highly successful cultural fundraising played critical roles in the colorful evolution of this world-class cultural juggernaut in the performing arts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781576878002
Publisher:	powerHouse Books
Publication date:	11/02/2021
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	42 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Karen Brooks Hopkins is the president emerita of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where she worked for thirty-six years, serving sixteen as its president. As president, Hopkins oversaw the institution’s 230 full-time employees and its multiple theaters and cinemas, ranging from the 2,100 seat BAM Howard Gilman Opera House to the flexible 250-seat Fishman Space. 

Hopkins has served as the chair of the Cultural Institutions Group, has been a member of the mayor’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission, the New York State Board of Regents, and on the Boards of NYC & Company, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, and currently on the Trust for Governors Island. Hopkins was appointed Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star by the government of Sweden, named Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Republic of France, and awarded the King Olav Medal by Norway. She was designated a “Woman of Achievement” by the professional association Women in Development in 2013 and named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in New York” by Crain’s New York Business. Among the many honors BAM has received during her tenure is the 2013 National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists and arts organizations by the US government. President Obama presented the medal to Hopkins at a White House ceremony. In 2014, Hopkins was one of ten esteemed business leaders appointed to the inaugural Crain’s Hall of Fame. 

Her widely read book, Successful Fundraising for Arts & Cultural Organizations, is currently in its second edition. A graduate of the University of Maryland, she received her MFA from George Washington University in Washington, DC. She has received honorary degrees from St. Frances College, Pratt Institute, Long Island University and a prestigious Doctor of Laws from Columbia University. 

Following her retirement from BAM in June 2015, Hopkins recently served as the Inaugural Senior Fellow in Residence at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, adviser to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, board member of the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, senior adviser to and board member of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA), and was the Nasher Haemisegger Fellow at SMU/DataArts.

Editorial Reviews

"We didn't have enough money to even be the second-rate (Lincoln Center), so we decided to be a first-rate BAM. And that meant finding another way artistically to reveal ourselves to our audience and to the world. So we took this path of avant-garde, experimental work, things that couldn't be seen anywhere else; only here, only now at BAM."

Amanpour - Karen Brooks Hopkins

"In a new memoir, the former president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music reflects on some of the organization’s most memorable stagings and artists."

The New York Times - Roslyn Sulcas

'For a princess, coming to Brooklyn was stepping outside the comfort zone of high society at the time,' Brooks Hopkins told The Post. Her royal seal of approval 'changed everything for us, for Brooklyn.'”..."Brooks Hopkins details the moment in her new book, 'BAM... And Then It Hit Me'... which looks back at her 36 years at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Diana’s visit, she said, was an extra special memory."

New York Post - Raquel Laneri

2021-08-19
The president emerita of the Brooklyn Academy of Music remembers her 36 years working to transform BAM from a small, local arts organization into “one of the most significant cultural centers in the world.”

Baltimore native Hopkins fell in love with the arts at age 8 when she made her acting debut at summer camp. After majoring in theater arts at college, she worked for small theater organizations in Washington, D.C., and then New York City. In 1979, when she was still a "hungry" young arts professional, Hopkins was offered a job at BAM, which had just begun establishing itself as a creative locus for avant-garde directors and choreographers like Trisha Brown and Merce Cunningham. For one year, Hopkins helped then-president Harvey Lichtenstein create greater financial stability and a modern identity for BAM, a "venerated Brooklyn institution that, in its heyday, had been a stomping ground for Mark Twain, Booker T. Washington, Isadora Duncan, Sarah Bernhardt, Paul Robeson, and even Franklin D. Roosevelt.” Hopkins, who did nearly everything for the organization, was then promoted to vice president. In this role, she helped Lichtenstein not only recover from financial losses brought about by the demise of the BAM Theater Company, but also bring artists together to collaborate on the interdisciplinary arts programs that would transform BAM into an international sensation. Her efforts resulted in patronage from the likes of Princess Diana, whose presence at a BAM–sponsored 1989 Welsh National Opera performance resulted in the undertaking of even more ambitious projects—an Ingmar Bergman film festival in 1995 and the Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas festival in 2009. Illustrated with dozens of pages of delightful photographs taken from BAM archives and Hopkins’ own family albums, the text also features savvy advice on successful fundraising for aspiring arts administrators. This remembrance of a life lived among cultural icons will appeal to BAM fans and anyone who loves the arts.

A warmly personal celebration of an estimable career.

Kirkus Reviews