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BRONX TIMES R 20 EPORTER, SEPT. 3-9, 2021 BTR
Lehman’s PAC secures
$1.1M for reopening
The Lehman Center
for the Performing
Arts has received a major
boost ahead of its
planned Oct. 2 reopening,
securing more than
$1.1 million in public and
nonprofi t funding for fi scal
year 2021-2022. The
reopening also makes
the center’s fi rst new season
since the pandemic
dimmed its lights last
spring.
The center — currently
the Bronx’s largest
entertainment venue
— received $760,095 from
the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, a
$16 billion federal fund that helps independent
live venues, museums, theaters and
arts organizations bounce back from economic
losses suffered during the COVID-19
pandemic.
The center’s Executive Director Eva
Bornstein said she applied to the fund,
run by the U.S. Small Business Administration,
as part of a multi-layered effort to
help the center open its doors once again
to the public. The Lehman Center for the
Performing Arts canceled its 40th anniversary
season in March 2020 after COVID
19 forced the campus and the city to
shut down.
Crediting U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer and
U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez with championing
the federal initiative, Bornstein said
the aid “would breathe new life into thousands
of venues, including Lehman’s.” The
center was notifi ed of the award in July.
Under Bornstein, the Lehman Center
for the Performing Arts has also received
$354,800 in grant awards and discretionary
spending from other government agencies
and nonprofi ts to help with the coming
season’s operating expenses.
The funding includes:
-a $202,300 annual discretionary grant
from the New York City Council administered
by the New York City Department of
Cultural Affairs.
-an $80,000 New York State Legislature
allocation secured by Assemblyman
José Rivera, who represents
the Bronx’s District
78.
-a $22,500 grant from the
New York State Council on
the Arts.
-a $50,000 City Council allocation
to produce the annual
Albanian Festival this
fall, secured by Councilman
Mark Gjonaj, who represents
District 13 in the east Bronx.
Gjonaj underscored the
value of the center’s programs.
He said the funding he
secured would help develop
and establish “new artists
that texture our community intangibly.”
“I’m proud to allocate resources to the
Lehman Center for the Performing Arts
toward critical programs to help serve our
community,” Gjonaj said. “The arts center
has been a cornerstone for the cultural
and artistic education of the Bronx for over
four decades.”
Among other things, Bornstein said
the center would use the Shuttered Venue’s
aid and additional operating grants to
invest in marketing and secure acts. The
center will resume in-person operations on
Oct. 2 with a concert featuring salsa star
Andy Montañez, the Mambo Legends Orchestra
and singer Patty Padilla. Tickets
will be available online on Sept. 1.
Built in 1980, the center’s 2,276-seat concert
hall has been lauded as “acoustically
perfect” by critics and has presented hundreds
of classical, popular and folk/ethnic
dance, music and theatre companies, and
acts from around the world. A $15.4 million
renovation was completed in 2019, bringing
the center a new, visually impressive
glass-enclosed main entrance and lobby,
brand-new theater seating, new walkway
ramps that make the venue entirely ADA
compliant, a redesigned box offi ce, an elevator
to the balcony, and additional event
space and restrooms.
For more on upcoming events, visit
www.lehmancenter.org.
-Bronx Times
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