BROOKLYN COLLEGE BREAKS GROUND ON
LEONARD & CLAIRE TOW CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
For Immediate Release
CONTACT
Jeremy Thompson: 347-263-2761; jeremythompson@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Ernesto Mora: 212-662-9939; emora@brooklyn.cuny.edu
BROOKLYN, May 13, 2011 – Philanthropist Leonard Tow ’50 broke ground this morning on the new Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts surrounded by Brooklyn College President Karen L. Gould; Iris Weinshall ‘75, CUNY vice chancellor for facilities, planning construction and management; Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz ’70 and several other Brooklyn dignitaries; and faculty members of the college’s Department of Theater and Conservatory of Music.
The ceremony took place next to Gershwin Hall, the 57-year-old structure on Campus Road that will be demolished this summer to be replaced by the state-of-the-art performing arts center. Gershwin Hall houses the Sam Levenson Recital Hall and the Gershwin Theater, which closed to the public last December.
The center will provide rehearsal, production, and performance space for the Conservatory of Music and the Department of Theater, which, together with the departments of Art, Film, and Television and Radio, comprise the college’s new School of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts. Brooklyn College is widely recognized for its excellent arts faculty, students, and alumni, as well as a rigorous curriculum in the arts. The new center will offer students and faculty the facilities and equipment necessary to support a twenty-first century education in the performing arts.
Leonard and Claire ’52 Tow, who met as students at Brooklyn College, donated $10 million toward the construction of the new complex. The son of Russian immigrants, Leonard Tow is a Brooklyn native who soon after obtaining his Ph.D. from Columbia University became an economics professor. Tow rose to prominence after entering the telecommunication and cable industries in the 1960s. A trustee of the Brooklyn College Foundation, Leonard Tow is also chairman and president of the Tow Foundation, which supports nonprofit organizations and the systems that affect them to help vulnerable populations and individuals to become positive contributors to society.
Over the years, the Tows have generously shown their gratitude and commitment toward their alma mater by endowing a student internship program, student scholarships, and faculty travel fellowships, as well as undergraduate travel stipends that enable students to study or do research outside the United States. They also established the Claire Tow Distinguished Teacher Award. Last month, six members of the college’s faculty were awarded Tow Professorships for 2011-12, which provide $25,000 in funding for each professor to further research and scholarship.
Additional funding for the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts is provided by other generous alumni and trustees of the Brooklyn College Foundation, New York State, the New York City Council, the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President, and the City University of New York. Designed by Pfeiffer Partners Architects, the performing arts center will be the college’s first LEED certified ‘green’ building. The new $55 million facility is scheduled to open in 2014.
For more information about the center, please see the attached fact sheet. Renderings and photographs are available upon request.
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Founded in 1930, Brooklyn College is one of six senior colleges of the City University of New York. Considered one of the nation’s elite public colleges, it is located on a beautiful twenty-six-acre campus where it offers 130 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the arts and sciences, business, and education. Ranking in the top ten nationally in The Princeton Review’s 2006 guidebook, America’s Best Value Colleges, the college has been lauded as being on par with Ivy League institutions for its rigorous academic standards, core curriculum, honors programs and dedication to the community. The college enrolls more than 17,000 undergraduate and graduate students who represent the ethnic and cultural diversity of Brooklyn, the most populous and exciting borough in the city.