92Y is an irreplaceable forum for the exchange of ideas

• Recanati-Kaplan

  Talks

  Civic dialogue in action

  Art, fashion, current events, film, politics, food, law, and much more—our talks are reaching farther and wider with more live events, tickets sold and online audiences tuning in than ever before. And with our new XYZ initiative offering innovative programs and experiences for the next generation, we’re encouraging an energetic new community to join the conversation and take an active role in building a stronger community and world.

  This Year:

  380

  talks

  97 million

  minutes of online content viewed

  15,000+

  XYZ members

• Highlights

• Essential Conversations, Face to Face

  Ben Franklin Circles

  What can a founding father teach us about sparking dialogue and uniting communities today? A collaborative project between 92Y, the Hoover Institution and Citizen University, Ben Franklin Circles equip anyone anywhere with the tools to engage in face-to-face discussions about timely topics, values, ideals and aspirations to improve ourselves, the community and ultimately the world.

  “Conversation clubs, inspired by the Founding Father, have never felt more necessary.”

  —The New Yorker

• Watch Ben Franklin Circles in Action

• Celebrating Extraordinary Women

  When women get together to support each other, extraordinary things happen. This year, in recognition of those pioneering women leaders who pave the way and inspire us to reach beyond and exceed our potential, 92Y honored four remarkable women at the third annual Extraordinary Women Awards luncheon.

  

• Meet some of the extraordinary women in 92Y’s community

• History in the Making

  A groundbreaking literary performance celebrating Philip Roth

  Nine extraordinary actors, including Jon Hamm, Maggie Siff, Jennifer Ehle, André Holland and John Turturro, gathered at 92Y this fall for an unprecedented literary event—a staged reading of Philip Roth’s late-career masterpiece The Plot Against America. Conceived in collaboration with Roth himself in the months before his death and adapted expressly for our stage, the event was a testament to the author’s long friendship with 92Y’s Unterberg Poetry Center and a highlight of the center’s 80th anniversary season. Historic moments like these are among the many included in a growing archive of audio and video recordings from the Unterberg Poetry Center’s remarkable history, much of which is currently available on the web.

• 

  Visit the Poetry Center archives

Our programs ignite global movements and open new avenues to the arts

Pictured above: A scene from 92Y’s Theater for Young Audiences’ original production The Velveteen Rabbit

• Transforming Young Lives Through Music

  92Y’s Concerts Schools Project gives 1,000 public high school students each year firsthand engagement with world-class musicians. Students attend live performances in 92Y’s renowned concerts series, and performing artists visit the participating schools, spending time working personally with the students.

  “Now I tell younger classmates that music can take them wherever they want it to. 92Y’s program changes lives. It changed mine.”

  —Sergio Ramirez, Concerts Schools Project graduate

  Transforming Young Lives Through Music

  Sergio Ramirez began playing the guitar at eight years old. A Mexican-American growing up in the Bronx, he began taking music lessons at the Mariachi Academy of New York. When Sergio was 12, an instructor began showing him some classical guitar techniques. “I didn’t even know it was classical technique, I just knew that I liked it,” he says. He later enrolled in Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music. “I wanted to dive deeper into the world of music, but I didn’t have the slightest idea how to do that.” Then Sergio was introduced to 92Y’s Concerts Schools Project.

  The Concerts Schools Project is unique among New York City’s arts education outreach offerings, giving 1,000 public high school students each year firsthand engagement with world-class musicians. Students attend live performances in 92Y’s renowned concerts series, and performing artists visit the participating schools, spending time working personally with the students.

  As a freshman in the program, Sergio attended a classical concert for the first time. “It was one of the key moments of my life,” he says. Another concert featured violinist Nicola Benedetti. “She was electrifying! And 92Y brought her to my school the next day—this violin goddess came and listened to my string quartet perform in our dark basement classroom, and she rehearsed with us and talked about music with us—it’s one of the most amazing parts of this program, that we get to meet the musicians and get to know the music better through them.”

  Sergio is now a college freshman, attending the esteemed Manhattan School of Music, and on near-full scholarship. And he works at 92Y, overseeing select events in the Concert Schools Project this season. Director of 92Y’s Center for Arts Learning and Leadership Ava Lehrer says, “One of the special things about this program is that it allows for continuity. Our graduates can continue working with us. We even provide early career support. This kind of sustained relationship doesn’t happen everywhere.”

  Sergio says, “I truly believe that if not for the wonderful people at 92Y who work so hard to bring students to free, world-class concerts, I would not be where I am today: studying at one of the best conservatories in the world.”

  Read about how the Concert Schools Project transformed the life of young musician Sergio Ramirez

• See how music is transforming lives

  Your support brings arts education to:

  • 16,000

    students and teachers

    527

    classrooms

  • 80%

    of NYC school districts

    50+

    schools

• Artists in Residence

  Incubating emerging artists

  For decades, 92Y’s Artist in Residence programs, all part of the Gilda and Henry Block School of Arts, have given crucial early support to artists breaking new ground. In 2018 and 2019, we welcomed multimedia and performance artist Shantell Martin, whose roving black and white line drawings are a doorway to an entire universe of boundary-pushing collaboration; choreographers Ephrat Asherie, Alethea Pace, Chuck Wilt and Hee Ra Yoo, who are redefining dance in wildly innovative new directions; and Amsterdam-based jewelry artist Ineke Heerkens, whose ceramic creations transform the metaphysical elements of emotion into concrete, wearable objects.

• 

Meet three of 92Y’s Artists in Residence

• Shantell Martin

  Artist in Residence, Visual Arts

• Ineke Heerkens

  Artist in Residence, Jewelry

• Hee Ra Yoo

  Artist in Residence, Dance

• Smartphones and New Creators in Dance

  92Y launches first annual mobile dance film festival

  The next great dance visionary might emerge not on stage, but on screen. That’s the idea behind the 92Y Mobile Dance Film Festival—the first dance festival to present films shot exclusively on mobile devices. In its first year, the festival received submissions from 14 countries.

  “The next wave of dance films, made on your phone, is here”

  —The New York Times

  Read the The New York Times review of the 92Y Mobile Dance Film Festive.

• Watch Festival highlights

• Inflection

  Concerts raising questions that matter

  Our new concert series merges artists from the fields of music, literature and art. The first production featured the US premiere of East West Street: A Song of Good and Evil, based on the award-winning book by human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, and questioning how two men on opposite sides of humanity could find solace in the same work of art. Other productions this season include the world premiere of Leonardo, a 92Y-commissioned chamber opera centered on Leonardo da Vinci’s lifelong search for the soul.

  “Without the Inventions and Variations Fund for the Arts, we could never take these types of creative risks.”

  —Hanna Arie-Gaifman, Director, 92Y Tisch Center for the Arts

• Watch highlights from East West Street

• Waiting in the Wings

  Cultivating the next generation of theater lovers

  Musical theater, with its universal stories, characters and anthems helps us more deeply understand our world and each other. In April, we launched Theater for Young Audiences, a new initiative that develops original theatrical works for children ages 3-11.

  “A two-plus hours production in a Broadway theater is too long and overwhelming for the youngest children. We’re creating brand-new 30-minute works tailored just for kids and staging them professionally in our historic Buttenwieser Hall.”

  —Megan Doyle, director, 92Y Musical Theater

• 

The 92nd Street Y Nursery School

Celebrating 80 years!

Last March, our Nursery School marked its 80th birthday with a celebration benefit at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. And in May, the celebration continued with a specially-curated “Reunion Room” at 92Y’s annual Gala, bringing together classmates and families for an unforgettable evening. Over the course of 80 years, the school has expanded and grown, but our values of learning to care for oneself, one another and the world around us are the same today as the day we were founded. Research shows that the environment of a child’s earliest years has effects that last a lifetime. By laying the foundations for kindness and character, we seek to set young children on a path towards becoming good citizens who make a positive difference in the world.

#GivingTuesday

• Generosity Beyond Borders

  This year the global movement started by 92Y in 2012 continued to expand its reach. Every week new #GivingTuesday community coalitions start up in the US and abroad, from North Carolina and Alaska to Canada and Russia—all rallying around local causes. Since its inception, we’ve been excited to see #GivingTuesday activity in every corner of the world.

  “At a time when people’s differences can seem so pronounced, #GivingTuesday demonstrates that everyday acts of compassion can spread, inspire, and bring us closer.”

  —Henry Timms, President and CEO, 92Y

• • $380 million+

    raised online in the US alone for nonprofits around the world

    3.6 million+

    total gifts (up 50% over previous year)

  • $105

    average gift size

    $1 billion+

    raised online since inception in the US alone

  See #GivingTuesday 2018 in action