Recent Central Park Donations

The Central Park Conservancy has been raising money in order to enhance all of New York Central Park’s 21 playgrounds. Central Play, its fundraising project, is seeking to raise $40m from private donations to use in construction enterprises over the next five years.

While the Central Park Conservancy itself raises 80 percent of the $45.8m annual budget, there is still 20 percent to be gleaned from private donors, oftentimes large corporations.  For example, for Central Play, a donation of $3m has been received by JPMorgan Chase.  As well, a year ago, a pledge to the Central Park Conservancy of $100m was received from John Paulson of Paulson & Co.

According to officials from the Conservancy, the project is going to require a capital injection of $31m.   Renovations will have an impact on park users over the next few years while the projects are being undertaken, but as Dena Liner of the Central Park Conservancy explained, once the playgrounds that are temporarily closed re-open, it will be “almost like a big surprise for the neighborhoods that have loved them, with brand new equipment including new water sprinklers, water features, climbing structures, brand new swings, sandboxes, everything, so it's going to be a big surprise for the five million kids who love their park.”  Since the majority of the playgrounds were built in the 1930s and have, for the most part, not been modified in decades, it will definitely be a “big surprise.”

A Fresh Look at the Spring Show NYC

In a recent article in the New York Times, Ken Johnson covers the Spring Show NYC from a new angle. He discussed how the Spring Show NYC, that just took place at the Park Avenue Armory, offered visitors a glimpse at works of art like those many have never seen before.

He pointed out that, of course, there are many works in more familiar genres offered by portraitist Ammi Phillips, Phoenix Ancient Art and others. Unusual finds, however, included, for example, satirical portraits from Carlton Hobbs.

He continued, “A rather different set of objects is at Yew Tree House: more than 200 thin, flat pieces of birch wood in a wide variety of curvy shapes. They belonged to an early-19th-century Swedish woodworker who used them as templates to make parts for ships. Displayed altogether on one wall, they have an elegant, proto-Modernist simplicity.”

More than 60 exhibitors were part of the dramatic show including Anavian Gallery, Arthur Guy Kaplan, Botier, Inc., Clinton Howell Antiques, Phoenix Ancient Art, Crawford and many others.

Great Art on Exhibit Now in New York

There is no shortage of great art to see in one of the greatest cultural capitals of the world, New York City. Here is a short selection of a few worthy exhibitions we think are worth a visit.

• Sara Vanderbeek at Metro Pictures: Exploring the connection between memory, experience and

cultural expression, Vanderbeek created sheets of colored Plexiglas over a series of large-scale, black-and-white phototgraphs. Each photograph is of a colossal Roman marble or bronze sculpture of a female. Opposite the photos is a “colonnade” of abstract rectilinear modules of a similar size to the photos, perhaps suggesting a chicken-or-egg metaphor of classicism in art history. Until June 8 at 519 West 24th Street.

• Mark Greenwold: Murdering the World, Paintings and Drawings 2007-2013 at Sperone Westwater: Distorted bodily proportions and detailed portrayals of interactions between subjects which are subtly unnerving, make these surreal paintings fascinating. May 10-June 28 at 257 Bowery Lower East Side.

• Los Carpinteros, “Irreversible” at Sean Kelly Gallery: Los Carpinteros is a Cuban art collective which

deals mostly with the images from socialist ruling powers of the past and present. The new exhibit features sculptures and their first video. Make sure to see the Lego models of Cold War monuments from the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. May 11-June 22 at 475 Tenth Avenue.

Making New York a Greener, Greater City

With so many concerned citizens thinking about saving energy, New Yorkers should feel lucky and proud that their city is one of only a handful in the United States to take the lead in saving resources in the building industry.

Not only have the efforts of government agencies like PlaNYC taken major steps to making the city a “greener and greater New York,” but companies such as IDT Energy are also doing their part to bring the ‘green’ back to town.

The plan proposes ten far-reaching goals that address a different part of New York’s environment. The end result being a 5% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, which is just the first step to reaching the goal of a 30% reduction by the year 2030. This initiative will create about 18,000 jobs over the next 10 years, and save New York about $7 billion.

Customers with IDT Energy can choose the ‘green’ option when they sign up, or at any time after. When they do, they can feel happy knowing that their electricity is coming completely from hydropower, which is a renewable resource.

New Yorkers, together with New York City, are setting the “Greatest City on Earth” onto the path of the future: of conserving resources and using renewable sources of energy whenever possible.