UMEZ Awards Capacity Grant to Museum of the City of New York

Uptown Bounce at MCNY / Photo by Filip Wolak

NEW YORK – In February 2020, UMEZ awarded a grant to Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) in the amount of $268,341 to support capacity building. MCNY celebrates, documents, and interprets the City’s past, present, and future through exhibitions, school and public programs, publications, and its permanent interactive narrative of the City’s ongoing history, New York at Its Core. The Museum’s remarkable collection of 750,000 objects ranges from theater memorabilia and costumes, period fashions, photos, prints, and manuscripts, to furniture, silverware, and paintings. Current and upcoming exhibitions include: Who We Are, an exhibition marking the 2020 Census through artist and designer interpretations of New York and New Yorkers; Activist New York, an ongoing exhibition documenting social activism throughout New York City; City/Game, an exhibition honoring the excitement, energy and evolution of basketball, a quintessential city sport; and the online exhibition, The Greatest Grid, documenting the history of Manhattan’s famous grid of numbered streets and avenues.

The Museum recently completed a comprehensive modernization and expansion of its landmarked Georgian Colonial-Revival building in East Harlem on Fifth Avenue between 103rd and 104th Streets, which has been its home since 1932. UMEZ funds will be used to hire new personnel with the goal of increasing the Museum’s capacity to generate increased earned and contributed revenue. In helping fund their capacity building needs, UMEZ is proud to support MCNY as a continued “must-see” cultural and educational destination in New York City for years to come.

“We are grateful for the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone’s support through their Capacity Grant program. This critical assistance will diversify and strengthen our sources of earned and contributed revenue over the course of the next three years and beyond,” says Whitney W. Donhauser, Ronay Menschel Director & President at the Museum of the City of New York. “The Museum has benefited tremendously from the past support provided by UMEZ, and, as we approach our centennial year in 2023, we look forward to the positive impact that this grant will have on the Museum’s achievements and growth.”

“The Museum of the City of New York is an integral member of the Upper Manhattan community and the greater New York City cultural ecosystem,” said UMEZ President and CEO Blair M. Duncan. “UMEZ has invested in the Museum’s initiatives since 2005. This current grant will help the Museum as it continues to build revenue through the marketing of its traveling exhibitions and the implementation of a planned giving program.”

To learn more about MCNY’s mission and various programs, click here.