Art

CSV Gets $250,000 for Building Improvements

The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center in Manhatttan's Lower East Side was rewarded with a $250,000 grant to make improvements to its building.
The grant will also allow CSV to do more community outreach through surveys, town hall meetings and interviews to identify and define what needs Lower East Side residents would like to see integrated into the programs and renovation plan of the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center; hire a staff member to focus on the center's newsletter and web presence and retain the services of an architect.
Council Member Alan J. Gerson made the announcement recently to a packed audience attending the opening of two exhibitions at the center: Portrait of Loisaida and PSA: Public Service Announcements. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation rewarded the grant.
Founded in 1993, the CSV Cultural Center is the largest arts incubator in New York City and houses 53 visual artists in working studios, 16 performing arts groups, four theaters and two galleries in its city-owned building.
"This grant will allow us to organize a series of conversations to take place over the next year, between CSV and the occupants of the center and CSV and the broader Lower East Side community, that will shape a Master Facility Planning document and serve as the blue-print on how best to renovate the building in the coming years," said Luis R. Cancel, CSV's executive director, in a statement.
The city-owned building was originally designed as a public school in 1897 and served generations of the local immigrant communities before being converted into a cultural center.