IMAC Executive Director and guiding light Michael Rothbard passes away
Oct 30 2009
It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of IMAC Theater’s Executive Director and guiding light Michael Rothbard.
*Service Information*
Please join us for a celebration of the life of Michael Rothbard on:
Monday November 2nd, 2009
12:30pm
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington (UUFH)
109 Browns Rd. Huntington NY 11743
(631) 427-9547
Internment will follow immediately at Huntington Rural Cementary 555 New York Ave
Huntington, NY 11743-4215
Michael Rothbard, co-founder of the Inter Media Art Center (IMAC) in 1974 with Kathie Bodily and a dynamic force in the cultural life of Long Island for the past 34 years, passed away suddenly this morning (Oct. 30th) at Huntington Hospital.
Born in Brooklyn in 1946, Michael was an independent video producer before pursuing his vision of establishing a space where artists in all media could create and showcase their work. This vision evolved from a small media access center in the basement of a home in Halesite to an abandoned movie theater on New York Avenue in Huntington Village that became the premiere concert venue on Long Island.
Before closing its doors this past June, IMAC had inspired many imitators, but none could reproduce the spirit that made IMAC so special. That spirit was Michael, whose enthusiasm, generosity, ingenuity and indomitable energy embraced IMAC’s crew, audience, performers and especially Kathie, his loving partner.
Michael is survived by his perfect mate, Kathie Bodily, Cleo, their Golden Retriever, his sister, Lynn Carr and his niece, Melody Carr.
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(previous blog post at the IMAC site)
IMAC leaves the Huntington Theater
First, Kathie, our staff, Cleo and I want to thank the many patrons who have enjoyed so many of their favorite artists at the IMAC Theater over the years.
An old, decaying building with too many flaws to continue to manage, exponentially raising costs and declining support have brought us to the conclusion that it is time to move out of the building that have been renting for 26 years and pursue a new mission.
IMAC has been a pioneering organization since its inception 36 years ago when we became one of the 13 original Media Art Centers. Our mission was to establish a professional video production facility to serve Artists, non-profit organizations and independent producers from Long Island in an attempt to facilitate a whole new range of television productions that never existed before.
In 1983, IMAC was the first on Long Island to turn an abandoned theater into a non-profit performing arts center whose mission was to present a wide range of music not normally found on Long Island. In the last few years, a number of townships have revitalized their abandoned theater “eye-sores” into successful venues and a number of universities are regularly presenting programming echoing the IMAC model. Now the music and artists that we first brought to Long Island can be found at many of the new venues and we feel we are not pioneering any longer.
IMAC has decided to broaden its mission and return to its pioneering roots in a number of ways. One of our new directions will involve using electronic media to better connect audiences with venues in ways that will help increase revenues to venues and connect patrons to venues in new and easy ways. Additionally, IMAC will be available for a wide variety of arts consulting projects.
Huntington has been revered as a cultural Mecca for well over two hundred years. It’s obvious that a world class town like Huntington, being the “Little Apple”, needs a world class theater. Toward that end IMAC and the Huntington Town Supervisor, Frank Petrone will explore the possibilities of bringing back a state of the art performing arts center to Huntington.
Please stay in touch. Visit our site from time to time to see what’s going on and feel free to email us…
Musically yours,
Michael, Kathie, Cleo and the staff
Filed under: local, Long Island Music, News Tagged: | huntington, IMAC, Long Island Music
I am very sad to hear the passing away of (MIKE) as I always called him.Every time he saw me at a show at IMAC,he always stopped and greeted me.I was sad to see IMAC close.I am sick to hear this sad news.I thank you again for bringing many great shows to Huntington.God Bless you.Enzo Saulle