NEW YORK.- Saul Dennison, President of the Board of Trustees of the New Museum of Contemporary Art, announced today that Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg and Susan and Leonard Feinstein have pledged the lead gift to name the new building planned for 235 Bowery. This gift, given as a challenge grant that has now been met, has brought a total of $14 million to the campaign.

Mitzi Eisenberg and Susan Feinstein are both trustees of the New Museum. Their gift brings the total amount pledged to $20 million from the Board of Trustees with 100% board participation.

"The extraordinary gift from the Eisenbergs and the Feinsteins is a great boost to our campaign for the new building. It has brought us much closer to our financial goals, and has motivated the entire board to increase their giving to the campaign" said Board President, Saul Dennison. "These two families will long be remembered for their critical role in supporting the New Museum of Contemporary Art."

"My husband, Warren, and I have collected modern and contemporary art since the early 1990s and our son Marty has also supported the New Museum for several years," said Mitzi Eisenberg. "The New Museum’s dedication to contemporary art and artists is unparalleled, and the decision to work with the cutting edge architectural firm SANAA reflects the museum’s mission. It’s important that we continue to find ways to challenge ourselves and the New Museum has a longstanding history of doing just that."

"New York City is the cultural capital of the nation, and the new New Museum will provide visitors to the city with an experience that is unmatched by others," stated Susan Feinstein. "The new building will be a new landmark for the City, and we believe in the New Museum’s vision for the future."

Lisa Phillips, Henry Luce III Director of the New Museum of Contemporary Art said, "The commitment to this project shown by the Eisenbergs and the Feinsteins is truly exceptional and enables us to realize our dream of a state-of-the-art museum for the 21st century."

Mitzi Eisenberg has been a trustee of the New Museum of Contemporary Art since 2003. Through the Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg Family Foundation, Mitzi and her husband Warren are involved in supporting Jewish and education organizations, such as the Berkshire Hills Emanuel Camps; the I Have a Dream Foundation; and, Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam (Oasis of Peace). Warren Eisenberg is a trustee of Yeshiva University. Warren Eisenberg and Leonard Feinstein are the co-founders and co-chairmen of the retail chain Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Susan Feinstein was nominated to the New Museum’s Board of Trustees in 2004. She is a trustee of the Jewish Museum and on the board of the Contemporary Collectors Council of the Nassau County Museum, and a founding board member of The Long Island Head Injury Association. She is active in the Women’s Division of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. Together, Susan and her husband Leonard, helped establish the Leonard and Susan Feinstein Center for Neuroscience at the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Hospital System.

The New Museum is the only Museum exclusively devoted to contemporary art in Manhattan. The new 60,000 square foot facility will be the first art museum constructed Downtown in the city’s history and a significant step in the cultural revitalization of the area. Designed by the Tokyo-based architectural firm Sejima + Nishizawa/ SANAA, the extraordinary seven-story composition – a dramatic stack of rectangular boxes shifted off axis in different directions, clad in a silvery metal, and punctuated by skylights and windows offering vistas and vignettes of the city – doubles the size of the New Museum’s facilities on Broadway in SoHo, where exhibitions and programs had been mounted since 1983. In addition to dramatically expanded, flexible, and column-free exhibition space, the Bowery building will offer an innovative new media center, a theater/auditorium, bookstore, expanded classrooms, study center, café, and wrap-around rooftop terraces. Located at 235 Bowery, between Stanton and Rivington Streets and at the beginning of Prince Street, the new building will occupy a pivotal geographic and historical point in Manhattan’s urban fabric, along one of its most storied thoroughfares. Construction on the new building will begin in Fall 2005.

About the New Museum of Contemporary Art

Founded in 1977, the New Museum is the leading contemporary art museum in New York City and among the most respected internationally, with a curatorial program unrivaled in the United States in its global scope and adventurousness.

Over the last five years, the Museum has organized exhibitions of emerging and established artists from Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, China, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, England, Germany, Poland, Spain, South Africa, and Turkey. These are combined with ambitious surveys of important but under-recognized artists such as Ana Mendieta, William Kentridge, David Wojnorowicz, and Paul McCarthy. The Museum’s Media Lounge, launched in November 2000, is the only museum space in New York City devoted to presenting digital art and experimental video from around the world.

Exhibitions and programs during the transition period are being presented at the New Museum of Contemporary Art / Chelsea, located at the Chelsea Art Museum at 556 West 22nd Street. For more information, please visit www.newmuseum.org.



New Museum of Contemporary Art / Chelsea General Information

Web Site www.newmuseum.org

Email newmu@newmuseum.org

Museum Hours
Tuesday – Saturday: noon – 6:00PM
Thursday: noon – 8:00PM*
Closed Sunday and Monday

Store Hours
Tuesday – Saturday: noon – 6:00PM
Thursday: noon – 8:00PM


Admission
$6.00 general; $3.00 students/seniors
Free for members; visitors 18 and under free
*Thursday 6:00-8:00PM, $3.00

Directions
Subway: C/E to West 23rd Street, 1/9 to 23rd Street
Bus: M23 to 11th Avenue

The New Museum of Contemporary Art receives general operating support from the Carnegie Corporation, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, JPMorgan Chase, and members of the New Museum.

For more information please contact the Public Relations Office at 212-219-1222 ext. 217 or email press@newmuseum.org or visit the press office online at http://www.newmuseum.org/Press_Office/index.html. Information about the New Museum’s exhibitions and public programs is also available online at www.newmuseum.org