February 9, 2024

WE HAVE MERCH! Click here for branded CAC and Cult Cafe merchandise.

Thanks to Over 1,500 Donors - We Made Our Campaign Goal!

Our 2023 Vic Skolnick Life of Our Cinema Campaign closed on January 31, 2024. Our goal was to raise $200,000 to support our programs and operations, and to help us continue our post-shutdown recovery while delivering deep cultural, social, educational, and economic benefits to our community. Thanks to all of our amazing supporters, we beat our goal and together we achieved our most successful annual campaign on record!

While we have reduced our expenses by over 15% since 2019, still film exhibition is an expensive business. We need to raise and earn over $2,000,000 a year in order to continue and grow our level of service as one of Long Island's most vital arts and cultural organizations and community hubs. We do that through ticket sales, cafe sales, grant-seeking, sponsorships, and very importantly there are two opportunities each year for individuals in our community to empower and enable our mission:

The first opportunity is to become a member and maintain your membership at the level that is right for you. See all the membership levels and benefits HERE.

The second opportunity is when we ask our members to make an additional, fully tax-deductible gift, above-and-beyond membership at year-end through the Vic Skolnick Life of Our Cinema Campaign. We are so grateful that over 1,500 of you responded! We are here to create this space and present the widest range of film programs and cultural events possible because of you. Thank you!

On Sunday January 28, nearly 100 of our closest supporters, and business and civic leaders joined us for a "Thanks-a-Brunch" held in our Sky Room Cafe to celebrate our campaign victory and share time together. The brunch was sponsored by Bottles and Cases, Butera's Restaurant, Best Bagel A Round and Village Bagel, Munday’s, Over Easy, Southdown Marketplace, Wild by Nature, and CAC Board Member Jude Schanzer sponsored our live music performed by Skyla Budd. Special thanks to Karen Klafter, Chief of Staff for Suffolk County Legislator Tom Donnelly; TOH Receiver of Taxes Jillian Guthman; and NYS Assemblyman Steve Stern, who all gave such thoughtful and inspiring remarks during our program.

It was so meaningful to celebrate our campaign victory at this brunch, and every day with all of you as we continue to bring the best in cinematic artistry to YOUR independent community cinema.

Sponsor Spotlight: ShopRite

The Cinema Arts Centre is so grateful to ShopRite, who, since joining our Huntington community, has sponsored many important Cinema Arts Centre events including our Academy Awards Night Fundraiser and our 50th Anniversary Celebration.

The ShopRite story started in the 1940’s with eight mom and pop grocers who came together to become the founding members of the Wakefern Food Corp. cooperative. They soon realized the benefits of operating under one unified and recognizable name.

As family owned and operated businesses, ShopRite stores are committed to community engagement, including helping neighbors in need throughout the communities served by their stores. In 1999, they established the ShopRite Partners In Caring program, a community-based, hunger fighting initiative that supports more than 2,200 charities. Since its founding, ShopRite Partners In Caring has donated more than $48 million to soup kitchens, food pantries, homeless shelters, senior citizen centers, and other organizations that are on the front lines of fighting hunger.

Wakefern and ShopRite member families also passionately support the special needs community. They started the Supermarket Careers program in 1989 to educate and train special needs students for meaningful careers in the supermarket industry. This award-winning program continues to thrive today at 42 schools throughout the company’s footprint. ShopRite is also an annual sponsor of the New Jersey Special Olympics Games, providing logistical, volunteer and food support for annual events.

At ShopRite, you’re not just filling a grocery bag. You’re helping to support communities on Long Island through their sponsorship of vital community organizations like the Cinema Arts Centre, and the profound work described above.

We are pleased to announce that ShopRite is returning as a sponsor of our 2024 Academy Award Night Fundraiser to be held in our Sky Room Café on Sunday March 10th, doors and dinner at 6pm.

Stay tuned as we continue to feature our generous sponsors in the newsletter. Sponsorship opportunities are still available for our Academy Awards Night Fundraiser and other great Cinema programs. For more information, contact rene@cinemaartscentre.org.

Our Next Conversation with Crossing Party Lines:

TUE, FEB 13 · 7:00 PM EST

Trump Ballot Eligibility

RSVP HERE: https://www.meetup.com/crossing-party-lines-long-island/events/298932430/

There is an effort to ban Donald Trump from running for office again, with formal challenges to Trump’s appearance on the presidential ballot filed in at least 34 states, on the basis of the prohibition in the 14th amendment against someone who had previously taken an oath to support the constitution who later “engaged in insurrection” against the US or gave aid to those who did from holding office. More than 25 states have filed amicus briefs to the Supreme Court against these challenges. Supporters of the ban believe that Trump poses a threat to democratic institutions and argue that Trump's rhetoric, particularly surrounding the events leading up to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was inflammatory and incited violence. Those who oppose say that the 14th amendment does not apply here but is being distorted out of partisanship, and see banning Trump as a restriction on free speech & setting a dangerous precedent.

At this meeting we will be discussing this contentious issue, including:

• What side of this issue do you find yourself on and why?
• Do you think the 14th amendment applies here?
• What do you see as some of the ethical and political considerations around this issue?
• How do you see the outcome of this fight affecting politics in the US in the longer term?
• 
  

Join the Crossing Party Lines discussion and have a voice in our nation’s conversation! People of all views are welcomed, appreciated, and heard.

Follow the conversation on our social media:

Facebook.com/crossingpartylinesli

Instagram.com/crossingpartylinesli

Twitter.com/cpl_longisland

Special Thanks to our Current Program and Reception Sponsors:

CLICK HERE to review current sponsorship opportunities.