MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: WHERE THE PAST INFORMS THE FUTURE FY2010 Annual Report AR_2.09.11.indd 1 8/11/11 10:53 AM FROM THE DIRECTOR Like all institutions in New York endowment. Representative Carolyn Maloney secured a City’s cultural sector, the Mu- $350,000 grant from the federal government to support seum of the City of New York our slate of innovative out-of-school-time programs serving approached the start of Fiscal children from our East Harlem community. Never content to Year 2010 (July 1, 2009-June rest on their laurels, the Center’s educators undertook an 30, 2010) with caution, knowing assessment project during the year to measure the impact that the previous year’s reces- that our fi eld trip programs make on participating students’ sion showed no sign of abating. learning. This groundbreaking project was supported by a We prepared our budgets and $50,000 grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies. our programming schedule with tremendous care, mindful that We strive to be a museum for all New Yorkers, of all ages, in order to maintain our level of backgrounds, and boroughs—and our efforts have garnered service to the public, we would need to do more with less. new support. We were honored in FY2010 to be one of only fi ve museums to receive a $500,000 two-year grant from Therefore, it gives me particular pride to present this Annual The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s pilot Report—which shows that for us, despite continuing eco- program to broaden access to New York City cultural insti- nomic uncertainty, FY2010 was a tremendously successful tutions. This important funding supported our school and year. We opened 14 exhibitions, presented over 140 public public programs during FY2010 and will continue to buoy programs, and drew a record-setting audience of 235,141 us through the next fi scal year as well. And the Altman people—a 4% increase over FY2009’s total attendance. Foundation generously continued its support of our ongoing This visitation growth drove a 21% increase in Admissions efforts to broaden our audience with a $75,000 grant for and Museum Shop sales over FY2009 totals. And coupled digital outreach to under-served New York City residents— with rigorous expense controls, that bump in earned income their third such outreach grant to us and a hugely appreci- helped the Museum achieve perhaps its most remarkable ated vote of confi dence. feat of FY2010: we fi nished the year with an operating surplus of $190,390. The success of these efforts can already be seen, not only in the attendance increase mentioned above but also in the All the while we continued steady progress on the initial stage fact that our membership continued to grow in FY2010: our of Phase II of our three-phase Restoration and Expansion members increased in number by 14%. Project. This work has transformed the Museum behind the scenes, turning spaces that had housed collections storage Making all these successes possible in these very and the Rockefeller period rooms into new, state-of-the-art of- precarious times are the extraordinary members of fi ces for our staff and freeing the old, makeshift offi ces for their our Board of Trustees. Their support of our exhibitions, upcoming return to their original function as gallery space. Even collections management initiatives, events, school and better, Phase II is upgrading and enlarging the classrooms of public programs, and our capital campaign is crucial to the our Frederick A. O. Schwarz Children’s Center with up-to-date continued survival of this institution, and we thank them technology that will help our educators serve more of New York most heartily for their commitment. I must in particular City’s children than ever. recognize our visionary Chairman, James G. Dinan, whose personal gifts in FY2010 totaled $2,068,543—including Indeed, providing greater access to the Museum’s extraor- over $1 million to the capital campaign—and who triumphed dinary resources—for New Yorkers, for school children, and once again as the captain of our most important fundraiser, for scholars and fans of New York City history all over the the Chairman’s Leadership Award Dinner. world—was a focus of all our activities in FY2010. Primary I also salute the City of New York, which has been steadfast in this effort is our ongoing digitization project, whose ulti- in its support of both our operations and our construction mate goal is to make high-resolution digital images of every project. My thanks go to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, one of our collections objects available in a searchable City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and Department of online catalogue, which will be housed on our Web site at Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin for their www.mcny.org. Thanks to major support received in FY2009 unwavering belief in the importance of this institution. from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and the Leon Levy Foundation, we were able to continue digitizing Finally, I must acknowledge the Museum’s staff. These our renowned collection of photographs of New York City hardworking professionals rise to the challenge every day, in during FY2010. In fact, over the course of the year, our spite of obstacles as large as the world economic situation team digitized 55,945 images by such masters as Jacob and as small as the inconveniences presented by ongoing Riis, Berenice Abbott, and the Wurts Brothers Company. construction. They make it all happen here, and I thank them. Our education programs at the Frederick A. O. Schwarz Children’s Center continued to thrive in FY2010. For the fourth year in a row, we saw well over 30,000 students and teachers, who visited for an array of fi eld trip programs, out-of-school-time programs, and professional development workshops. The high quality of our programs helped us raise Susan Henshaw Jones $368,100 to complete a $350,000 challenge match from the Ronay Menschel Director of the Museum of the City of New York F.A.O. Schwarz Family Foundation to augment the Center’s AR_2.09.11.indd 2 8/11/11 10:53 AM CAPITAL CAMPAIGN $5,000,000 and above $200,000 to $499,999 $50,000 to $99,999 James G. Dinan The Bank of New York Mellon The Barker Welfare Foundation and Elizabeth R. Miller Mr. and Mrs. Jeremy H. Biggs Hon. Jonathan Bing, Booth Ferris Foundation New York State Assembly Nancy and James Buckman Con Edison $1,000,000 to $4,999,999 Jennifer and James Cacioppo/ Martin J. McLaughlin/Martin J. One East Partners LP McLaughlin Communications Charina Endowment Fund Donna and Dermott W. Clancy/ The New York Community Trust Mr. and Mrs. William T. Comfort Dermott W. Clancy Corporation Allison Whipple Rockefeller and Puffi n Foundation Barbara J. Fife/The Joelson Peter Clark Rockefeller Larry and Sandy Simon Foundation Tiffany & Co. Foundation Deban and Thomas M. Flexner George Link Jr. Foundation, Inc. $1,000 to $49,999 James A. Lebenthal $500,000 to $999,999 MBIA Foundation, Inc. Toni Fillet Carney Polly and Newton P.S. Merrill Mr. and Mrs. James L. Gammon John and Jill Chalsty Ronald Purpora/ICAP Corporates LLC Bruce S. Gelb Marvin and Mary Davidson Mary Ann and Bruno A. Quinson William T. Georgis The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Debbie and Daniel Schwartz Mr. and Mrs. Mark J. Godridge Margaret T. Morris Foundation Hon. José M. Serrano, Micah S. Green Hebe Dowling Murphy New York State Senate Sylvia Hemingway Elizabeth Farran Tozer Dr. and Mrs. Frederic P. Herter and W. James Tozer Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Ian D. Highet The Hyde and Watson Foundation Michael B. Jeffers $100,000 to $199,999 Patricia Kavanagh and James Grant Mr. and Mrs. Hans W. Kertess Louis Auchincloss KPMG LLP Lois M. Collier Jody and Giulio Martini Marjorie Fortgang/M. Fabrikant Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Miller & Sons, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Anthony M. O’Connor Lionel Goldfrank III Olmstead Properties Hearst Foundation The Pechter Foundation Rachel and Ara Hovnanian Pershing LLC James Cayne and Patricia Cayne Andy and Libbet Regan Charitable Trust Fred and Suzanne Rheinstein Alexandra Lebenthal and Jay Diamond Joseph and Randi Sack Mrs. George Braniff Moore Gerald Tankersley New York State Council on the Arts Peter C. Trent Jim and Diane Quinn The Volcker Family Foundation, Inc. Photo by Whitney Cox 2 AR_2.09.11.indd 3 8/11/11 10:53 AM EXHIBITIONS The Museum was proud to present Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future (November 10, 2009 - January 31, 2010). Organized by Donald Albrecht, the Museum’s Curator of Architecture and Design, and designed by architect Wendy Evans Joseph, the show was the fi rst–ever retrospec- tive on this prolifi c, unorthodox, and controversial architect, whose work transformed 20th-century design. For the Museum’s presentation, the international travelling show was expanded with further examination of Saarinen’s New York work, including the CBS headquarters building All people photos by Michael DiVito by All people photos and the famed TWA Terminal at JFK Airport, and a section exploring his life with his second wife Aline, who was a distinguished art editor and critic for The New York Times. The show drew admiring press atten- tion. In The Wall Street Journal, legendary architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable wrote, “There is something profoundly moving about this show; an inescapable nostalgia pervades it for that elusive American Century.... Curator Donald Albrecht (left) at the opening reception for Eero Saarinen: Seeing how one architect expressed its hopes and aspirations helps us Shaping the Future with Saarinen’s daughter Susan, exhibition Honorary Chair Robert A.