What's New

September 28: The Leon Levy Center for Biography’s 2010 Leon Levy Lecture will feature Ron Chernow (left), whose Washington: A Life, destined to be the definitive biography of the nation’s first president, will be published in October.  Chernow has written award-winning biographies of  Alexander Hamilton, John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan. More information on the event, which starts at 7 p.m., can be found on the LLCB website. (Reservations are recommended.)

With a third of American bird species under the threat, the American Bird Conservancy is publishing the first comprehensive guide to the specific dangers they face, and where, as well as the remedies that can save bird populations from dropping even further.

Sponsored by the Leon Levy Foundation, the guide is filled with beautiful color illustrations and original range maps. It’s an inspiring reference not just for bird-watchers but for anyone who cares about birds and the environment. Expected in bookstores in October.

Paul Attewell, Leon Levy Foundation Member, School of Social Science, and Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York gave The Leon Levy Lecture – titled “Mass Higher Education and the Dropout Problem” — at the Institute for Advanced Study in April.  Link to newsletter.

Supported by the Leon Levy Foundation, the Ashmolean, at Oxford University, is exhibiting “The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000-3500 BC,” which brings to Britain for the first time a remarkable collection of gold, pottery and archeological finds from the prehistoric civilization of the Danube Valley,  in southeast Europe. The exhibition will be on display through August 15, 2010.   Link to Ashmolean current exhibits 

“Edward Hirsch, the president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, announced today (April 14, 2010) that in its eighty-sixth annual competition for the United States and Canada the Foundation has awarded 180 Fellowships to artists, scientists, and scholars….chosen from a group of some 3,000 applicants.”

Link to Press Release.

The Leon Levy Foundation provides supplemental awards to fellows with no academic or institutional affiliation; in 2010, 60 awardees qualified for supplements.

A community Open House was held February 19th in Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, to celebrate the partnership between the Bahamas National Trust and the Leon Levy Foundation to create the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve (a 25-acre sanctuary that will showcase the Bahamas rich plant life). The project is expected to bring more than $2 million into the local economy. Open House attendees included the Hon. Earl D. Deveaux, members of the Bahamas National Trust Council/Eric Carey, Executive Director of the Trust Eric Cary, Shelby White, founding trustee of the Leon Levy Foundation, and other local government officials and community members. Link to article.

For the last three years, the Foundation has brought together archivists from institutions that have received a Leon Levy Archives and Catalogues grant. These annual roundtables not only provide an opportunity for participants to discuss topical issues and learn from each other, but also to visit the premises of a grantee. Last year, the archives of the Museum of Modern Art hosted the event.

In February, 2010, the Center for Jewish History provided the venue (left), and Chief Operating Officer Michael Glickman related how the processing of the papers of Rafael Lempkin — the man who coined the term “genocide” – led to a conference, an exhibition, public programs and a website. And Tiffany Nixon, archivist of the Roundabout Theatre, which is starting an institutional archive with Foundation funding, talked about ”Ten Lessons I’ve Learned Collecting ‘Lost’ Archival Treasures.”

 

When considering a new program, the Leon Levy Foundation often convenes groups of experts for advice. That’s what happened in early February, 2010, when several distinguished archaeologists, museum directors, and curators from around the world gathered at the Foundation’s offices. Led by the Foundation’s Special Advisor, Philippe de Montebello, they discussed how best to make available the trove of unpublished information from important ancient world sites excavated under “partage” agreements. The partage system, through which western universities and museums worked in concert with host countries on digs, then divided the discoveries, was at its height at the turn of the last century. Many of the most important sites of the ancient world were excavated through these partnerships, which continue even today. The Foundation hopes to play a leadership role in making this information available to scholars around the world.

The January-February 2010 issue of Playbill describes the digitization project at the New York Philharmonic archives that will allow scholars — and the public — to explore the orchestra’s rich history. Funded by the Leon Levy Foundation, the project is expected to be a model for other arts institutions striving to make the contents of their institutional archives available to scholars and the public.

Read the article here.

In early December, 2009, work began on the first phase of the most significant landscape restoration project ever undertaken in Prospect Park, when city and park officials broke ground on a 26-acre area that will be returned to the historic design originally envisioned by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.

With a $10 million grant from the Leon Levy Foundation, Prospect Park is reconstructing a portion of Prospect Lake, building a boat dock and stone terrace, and providing pedestrian access to the Lakeside project.

Read more from The New York Times here.

Read the press release from Prospect Park here.