The League Receives Three-Year Funding Commitment from Long Island-Based Gardiner Foundation
ALBANY, NY, 12/19/22 — The Preservation League of NYS is thrilled to announce a continued funding partnership with the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation. A three-year funding commitment from the Gardiner Foundation will allow the League to bring grant opportunities and extended outreach to local historical societies and historic sites on Long Island.
The Science Museum of Long Island in Nassau County is one of many organizations the League has made grants to in recent years thanks to support from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.
On Tuesday, December 13, the League was honored to join our fellow grantees from the Museum Association of New York at the NYS Archives for a check presentation from the Gardiner Foundation. The League’s grant totals $135,000 over three years, with $40,000/year for Preserve New York and Technical Assistance Grants and $5,000/year for workshops, outreach, and technical assistance on Long Island.
l-r: League President Jay DiLorenzo, Gardiner Foundation Executive Director Kathryn Curran, League Grants Manager Jana Rudler, and League Trustees Council member Anne Older all face the camera during the grant check signing on December 13, 2022.
The League’s partnership with the Gardiner Foundation first began in 2017, and in the five years since, $120,000 of Gardiner funds have supported 18 projects on Long Island. Our continued partnership with the Gardiner Foundation will give Long Island cultural institutions and municipalities the tools they need to move forward with a wide variety of preservation projects.
The Preserve New York (PNY) and Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) programs are a partnership between the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and the Preservation League of New York State. These grant programs are made possible by NYSCA with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. The generous additional support from the Gardiner Foundation will ensure funding for Long Island-based projects. PNY funds important building and landscape reports for historic sites, as well as cultural resource surveys that lead to National Register designation and increased eligibility for state, federal, and nonprofit capital funding. These reports serve as an important first step for most building-related projects, including capital repair or restoration, handicapped accessibility, master plans, and interpretive plans. TAG provides support for short-term, discrete consulting projects for any arts or cultural organization housed in a historic building.
The breadth of project types the League can fund through our regrant programs gives us many opportunities to reach out to new constituents and introduce them to our regrant programs and services. All grantees receive more than just funding from PNY and TAG — they benefit from technical guidance and a long-term relationship with the League, local funders, and nonprofit partners. League staff continues to work with grant recipients beyond the length of their project. Gardiner Foundation support has added significantly to the League’s outreach capability, allowing League staff to bring its unique brand of technical expertise and preservation know-how to historic preservation initiatives on Long Island.
The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, established in 1987, primarily supports the study of Long Island history and its role in the American experience. The purpose of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation is:
To educate and inform the general public in the State of New York, particularly in the area of the Town of Islip and more generally in Suffolk County, concerning the culture, art and tradition of the locality;
To cultivate, foster and promote interest in, and understanding and appreciation of the societal heritage of Town of Islip, particularly during the nineteenth century;
To encourage and sponsor the creation and perpetuation by existing and future historical societies of collections and repositories for the deposit, collection and examination of documents and artifacts of various kinds relevant to such heritage and traditions; and
To sponsor and encourage the preservation, restoration and exhibition by existing and future historical societies of at least one facility appropriate to such purpose.