Reporting by Leah
The Board of Trustees of the Museum at Eldridge Street and special guests celebrated the recent installation of a new monumental stained-glass window as the culmination of the Museum’s 24-year, award-winning restoration of the 1887 Eldridge Street Synagogue on October 13, 2010. The evening honored Kiki Smith and Deborah Gans for their beautiful and transformative design of the East Window of this New York City and national historic landmark.
Following the official premiere of the new East Window, the Museum at Eldridge Street held a VIP reception. The evening was attended byover 100 people and hosted by the Museum at Eldridge Street Board of Trustees with the participation of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik and Paul Shapiro’s Hester Street Orchestra. Guests included Museum at Eldridge Street’s Executive Director Bonnie Dimun, Museum at Eldridge Street Chairman Michael Weinstein, President of the Museum at Eldridge Street Lorinda Ash, Founder of Eldridge Street Project Roberta Brandes Gratz, The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik,honorees artist Kiki Smith and architect Deborah Gans, artist Clifford Ross, artist David Salle, Marjorie B. Tivan, Patty Marx, Arne Glimcher, Susan K. Freedman, Susan Dunne, David van der Leer, JaneGural Senders, Jeffrey Wilks, and Judy and Stanley Zabar.
The Museum at Eldridge Street will present a series of special programs and events including a conversation with the artist and architect, panel discussions, public viewings, concerts, and a new architecture tour showcasing the building’s award-winning restoration and a new window.
The Museum at Eldridge Street is 123 years old.This installation and restoration could not have been accomplished without the crucial support of the City of New York,18,000 grass root donations, and the extraordinary work of many volunteers.
The Museum at Eldridge Street is a non-sectarian, not-for-profit art and history museum charged with maintaining the National Landmark Eldridge Street Synagogue and presenting the culture, history and traditions of the building’s immigrant founders. Eldridge Street is the only remaining marker of the great wave of Jewish migration to the Lower East Side that is open to a broad public audience. Cultural and educational programs explore American Jewish history and culture, Lower East Side immigrant and community history, and architectural preservation.
The Museum is located at 12 Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side in New York City. For more information on the Museum please visit www.eldridgestreet.org or call 212-219-0888.
