Jenny Belzberg: Mastering the Art of the Volunteer

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Supporting the arts is, for Jenny Belzberg, greatly about community. The Calgary philanthropist’s engagement with artists and arts organizations as a stalwart board member and generous donor has introduced her to people and experiences that, she says, enrich her life. She is still, at 96, keen to promote the creative spirit.

Since receiving a prestigious Governor General’s Award earlier this year—the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts—Belzberg has been inundated with interview requests. When we spoke (her second interview of the day), she graciously said: “I appreciate the attention, but it’s a bit overwhelming.”

Rather than talk about herself, Belzberg prefers being quietly present in the auditorium during the live performances that, she says,“make life more exciting.” As she likes to put it: “I excel at being a member of the audience.”

A passion for music—her first love—was sparked in childhood by her mother, a Russian immigrant who sang Russian folk songs while ironing. “My mother used to talk about how, on May Day, she and her friends would wear white and listen to famous musicians they could hear playing through the open windows of the Moscow concert halls.” Belzberg adds that despite the violent revolutionary times as communism took hold of the country, “Mother wouldn’t tell us anything terrible.”

When Belzberg was growing up, her mother would buy tickets to classical-music series at Calgary’s Grand Theatre, and since “Dad wasn’t always very excited about going, she took me.” That’s how, in the early 1940s, Belzberg came to hear virtuoso pianist Arthur Rubinstein play live.

“I had a cultural childhood,” Belzberg says. “We were poor but I never felt it, because my home life was so rich and my parents were caring.” There were music lessons (“I liked music but was lazy about practising”), and the family would drive to all-day picnics in the mountains, near the current site of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Belzberg recounts seeing artists, from early Banff Centre visual-arts programs, sitting outside painting the impressive landscape. As she and her two younger sisters ran about, they’d look over the shoulders of the artists, who would daub paint on the children’s faces.

As an adult, Belzberg has often made the drive to the mountains, with the Banff Centre her destination. In the 1970s, she attended musical theatre shows with her late husband, Hyman Belzberg. Their marriage in 1948 was pretty much “arranged” by both sides of parents, but developed into a loving and supportive partnership. Hy’s success in business—from his first furniture store to later real-estate partnerships—made him a good provider and meant Jenny could devote herself to volunteer pursuits. “My husband was a workaholic,” she says, “and he didn’t mind that I was so involved. He encouraged me. When I got frustrated at a board meeting and told him I was going to quit, he’d say: ‘No, you’re going to stay and fight it’.”

Jenny’s volunteer work began at her synagogue, where she helped with the weekly bulletin, and with social-service agencies. “I enjoy working with people,” she says. A sense of community, of growing friendships with like-minded people, sustained her as she developed the skills to join and then lead volunteer boards of directors. As a board member of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, a highlight for her and her “very social” husband was welcoming artists to their home for post-show supper parties. Later, as a member of Ottawa’s National Arts Centre board, she appreciated gaining a broad understanding of the performing arts in Canada.

Her commitment to the Banff Centre, whose board she served on from 1985-1991, is singled out in her Governor General’s Award citation. Recently, the financial support of Belzberg and her family (she has three
children) was key to the more than $7-million renovation of Banff Centre’s Eric Harvie Theatre. When it reopened in 2020, the venue was renamed in her honour.

Belzberg, who stayed involved during the upgrade, wanted to ensure the humble audience member was not forgotten. The Jenny Belzberg Theatre is an intimate, welcoming space, with less, not more, seats (from 930 to 638). As she explains, from her viewpoint as a frequent theatre-goer, “We want to enjoy the performance, which means you can’t be uncomfortable in your seat with your knees bumping against the chair in front.”

These days, Belzberg continues to enjoy performances by the Calgary Philharmonic. She mentioned plans to attend a show at the Grand Theatre featuring Georgy Tchaidze, a former prize winner of the Honens International Piano Competition she helped to found. And she often “drops by” Banff Centre, staying the whole weekend during the International String Quartet Competition and, in non-competition years, the Festival. There are always a lot of other things going on—“a writer talking about their book or an artist giving a special performance. I love being a part of it,” Belzberg says. “Being in the mountains, too—it’s such a special feeling.”