Residents of Carnegie Artist Studios Take It to City Hall

Actor/director John Turturro was among the protesters assembled at City Hall today for a rally to save the Carnegie artist studios, which could soon be taken over by Carnegie Hall expansion plans. But the big star of the day was 95-year-old Editta Sherman, the building’s longest living tenant, having resided there since 1949. She’s seen here holding a photograph she took of Leonard Bernstein, a former resident; Sherman’s studio in the building was once a destination for celebrities seeking classy photographic portraiture. Though her future there is now in jeopardy, Sherman, known to friends as the Duchess of Carnegie Hall, sounded resilient: “I’m not thinking about it, I’m not worried about it, because I’m not going anywhere.”

The studios, located above Carnegie Hall, have long been coveted by scores of artists who treasure the double-high ceilings and abundant northern light. The Carnegie Corporation, which manages the concert hall and the studios, plans to convert the studios to spaces for music education. Seven elderly tenants, including Editta Sherman, have rent-controlled apartments; the Carnegie Corporation has offered to help them relocate to comparable housing and subsidize their new rent for the rest of their lives. Asked about the other 40-plus tenants at a press conference following the rally, Carnegie’s executive director Clive Gillinson (pictured) said:

It’s going to be tough for them but almost all of them have come to the end of their leases. They can do their work somewhere else; the work of Carnegie Hall is the work of music and our contribution to the city has to come from Carnegie Hall. It’s not about us not caring, we do care. But musicians are artists and we feel we can make a big contribution to music education.

Janice Orlandi, a spokesperson for the tenants’ group, stressed that “even though some of the artists’ leases are technically commercial leases, it is their home and they’re people who have spent their lives living and creating in those spaces and the studios are more dear to them, in many cases, than their homes.” The purpose of the rally was to deliver a letter of appeal to Mayor Bloomberg, which was signed by a large group of artists and celebrities including Robert De Niro, Brian Cox, Steve Buscemi, Tony Kushner and Joel Coen. An online petition is here.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on January 18, 2008 3:19 PM

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Jancie Orlandi

To set the record strait, and to shed light on the untold facts of this story:

Who are the players are in this plan to steal a public building from the people of NYC?

Carnegie Hall Corporation CHC is not a private corporation! It was formed by the State of NY in an Act of Legislation on April 14 1960. Carnegie Hall Corporation was formed by the people of NY State in this legislation to manage Carnegie Hall and its adjoining properties the Artist Studio Towers. Second point the rent controlled tenants they are throwing out have not been made any offers by Carnegie Hall Corporation. Carnegie Hall has filed DHCR applications to remove the rent controlled tenants, and no official offer by the CHC Corporation to relocate them has been made.

Who saved Carnegie Hall from demolition in 1959?

In 1959 a developer brought Carnegie Hall and its Studio Towers, and was going to demolish all three buildings. It was the Artist Tenants who fought to save the Concert Hall by personally gathering 100 thousand signatures to stop the wrecking ball.

We would not have Carnegie Hall today if it wasn’t for the artist tenants who saved it from demolition.Some of the tenants who saved the famous Music Hall are now being thanked for their service to the community by being evicted.

Who owns the building now?

NYC is the owner and landlord and Carnegie Hall Corporation is the leasing agent for NYC. These are Public buildings saved in 1959 buy the people of NYC for the People of NYC and NY State and the world at large.

History of what governs these buildings:

In 1960 these same tenants went to Mayor Wagner with the 100 thousand signatures lead by Issac Stern. They all inspired Governor Rockefeller to save the Music Hall and its Artist Studio Towers. The State gave NYC five million dollars of tax payer money to purchase the buildings.

This is a city owned building not a private building and your taxes paid for it!

Therefore it belongs to the people of NYC not the Carnegie Hall Corporation which was formed by the State of NY to protect it and over see the legislative mandates governing the buildings and how they are to be managed.

The 1960 legislation states that the artist studios are to be managed and maintained as they were heretofore used prior to 1960 as artist residences and for the enrichment and development of education in the diverse disciplines of the arts including Drama and other related arts and Graphic Arts not only Music.

Gillinson said “The studio towers were built shortly after Carnegie Hall was built in 1895 for rental income to serve the hall.” but the NYS Legislation of 1960 further protected its use and how it was to be managed and they are taking this Public Trust and doing what they want with it, not what was legislated by NY State Law.

The Carnegie residents argue that the Carnegie artist studios were built, to serve as live and work spaces for artists in a multitude of art disciplines, acting, dance, painting, music and photography, they are specialty studios built for the purpose of housing artists in diverse disciplines.

“If the studios were built for only rental income, as Mr. Gillinson so deliberately states, why did Andrew Carnegie go through all the trouble?

Why did he configure and design each original studio to accommodate a variety of artistic disciplines? Why are these artist studios so diverse and unique, if they were created only for rental income for the Music Hall?

Andrew Carnegie could have just as well built basic apartment flats.

Andrew Carnegie created Artist Studios not railroad flats!

He designed long sweeping dance studios, Studios with high ceilings for singers and strategically placed northern light studios for painters and photographers because his vision for the towers was more than just “rental income” it was to create a comprehensive artist community that has survived for over 100 years, until this administration decided to take the studios off the rental market and warehouse them for years denying the public what is rightfully theirs and protected by the State Law.

The artist spaces have been the artistic home of legends of American culture like; Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, George Balanchine, Lee Strasberg and more recently; John Leguizamo, John Turturro, David Duchovny, Mira Sorvino and Marisa Tomei.

Should we destroy this tradition and cultural history with our silence?

In 1960 as a result of the State legislation, a 99 year Master Lease was implemented by Mayor Wagner to protect the artist studios and the artist tenants of NYC.

This City lease describes the accepted rental activities of tenants who must be artists in the fine arts and performing arts; it sates that the Carnegie Artist Studios must be first rented to Artists and advertised for 60 days before they can be rented to anyone else.

This Master Lease has 52 more years left and has protected the artist studios since

1960, only artist have rented these studios to both live and work and to offer classes

to thousands of people at affordable rates, including children and young artists in all creative disciplines and fields of the arts.

This building belongs to the people of NY and Carnegie Hall Corporations plan is to close the doors to the public and make it a private building, will serve only those people they select.

Who will be watching them now?

What are their untold plans once they get the artists out?

I wonder if they will live up to their promises?

Must the loss be this great for Carnegie Hall Corp to also increase their music education program?

It's hard to believe they don't have another way to achieve their goals that doesn't devastate the lives of the Carnegie Hall artists and the cultural treasure of the Carnegie Hall studios for generations of artist to come!

This is why we have asked the Mayor Bloomberg to preserve the Carnegie Hall Artist Studos as all the Mayors before him have.

“We call on you, Mayor Bloomberg to intercede and put a halt to the imminent loss of the Carnegie Hall Artist Studios, in order to preserve their traditional use and vital role in supplying individual artist spaces, for excellence in education and development in the arts that they have always provided to the citizens of New York,”

“Never before has this protective State Legislation and Master Lease been ignored or dismissed by the very corporation which was formed by the state, and entrusted with the responsibly to oversee and honor its mandates.”

btaylor

There is a difference between renting and owning. Investors that purchase apartment buildings take the risk of ownership, and they have every right to increase a tenant's rent, and if not protected by rent stabilization, they do not have to renew a lease. That said, do we have no room for kindness? The owners of Carnegie Hall allowed these renters to remain all these years. Why not, in this instance, allow the tenant's to remain and as apartments empty (death, relocation) turn them into music rooms then? It will happen in time. It seems to me that it is human nature to not want others to have what they cannot have themselves.

eyekantspel

How is it mean-spirited to acknowledge that there is a difference between renting and owning property? Seriously, I don't understand how people can RENT their whole life and then complain when their rent goes up or when the owner of the apartment doesn't renew their lease. Renters like this want to have all the flexibility of renting with all the benefits of ownership and none of the responsibilities.

tsol

"Sherman’s studio in the building was once a destination for celebrities seeking classy photographic portraiture."

She should have used the money she made back then to... buy an apartment!

Her lifetime of avoiding responsibility for her living situation is finally catching up with her. Boo-hoo, 95 years old and forced to grow up.

btaylor

Such mean-spirited comments! The Carnegie Hall Studios are such a part of New York - let's leave the residents in the studios alone! There is no "comparable housing" to Carnegie Hall !!!

eyekantspel

"the Carnegie Corporation has offered to help them relocate to comparable housing and subsidize their new rent for the rest of their lives."

That sounds like a pretty fair deal to me. If you want property rights, BUY property.