Irish Arts Center (IAC) has announced it will be renamed to JL Greene Theatre at Irish Arts Center, to be dedicated in April 2024, following a $3 million gift from the Jerome L Greene Foundation.
IAC joins a roster of some of New York’s most prestigious cultural institutions supported by the Foundation, including BAM, The Public Theater, Lincoln Center Theatre, and The Whitney Museum.
The Jerome L Greene Foundation gift, which supports the larger scale of programming and operations in the new 11th Avenue facility, builds on recent support from the City of New York ($10 million) and the Irish government ($4.1 million), to support the Center’s future redevelopment of its historic 51st Street home. This donation will help lay the groundwork for the IAC’s upcoming Phase Two campaign to complete the vision for a new Irish Arts Center and secure the organization’s future for generations to come.
Irish Arts Center also revealed the Spring 2024 programming, filling its new facility at 726 11th Avenue that opened in December 2021. The opening of this new 21,700-square-foot building culminated a more than a decade-long transformation of IAC into one of New York’s most beloved multidisciplinary cultural institutions on an intimate scale. With a flexible performance space and acoustic design, it provides a new canvas for the presentation and development of performing arts in the city.
We are thrilled to join the outstanding portfolio of New York cultural institutions supported by the JL Greene Foundation and to announce this gift in conjunction with one of our most exciting seasons yet. We look forward to many moments of artistry and inspiration to come in the JL Greene Theatre. As we begin our third full year of operation in our new home, we also look ahead to the next phase of our important work: completing our 51st Street redevelopment, and building reserves and an endowment, to complete our vision of a new Irish Arts Center that will be successful and sustainable for future generations.
Irish Arts Center Executive Director Aidan Connolly.
“We are proud to play a role in the presentation of world-class Irish arts in New York City,” said Chris McInerney, President and CEO of the Jerome L. Greene Foundation. “Irish Arts Center has proven itself to be an important cultural destination, and the JL Greene Theatre will be host to an amazing array of performing arts for New York audiences.”
IAC’s Spring 2024 programming features a wide variety of voices and forms, including the timely new work of political theater Agreement, a beautiful new dance work from choreographer, director, and performer Jean Butler, a residency of internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan, a large-scale exhibition of works by Irish women visual artists, and more. The new season expands on IAC’s mission to present the evolving arts and culture of Ireland and Irish America in an environment of warm Irish hospitality.
Throughout Spring 2024, beloved recurring programs continue to bring accomplished artists into IAC traditions. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon’s variety show Muldoon’s Picnic continues on March 11, April 1, and June 3. In IAC’s Devlin Café, the Café Concert Series brings spirited music out into a social and intimate environment, with Big City Folk Song Club, curated by Niall Connolly returning February 9, March 8, April 4, and May 23, and Traditional Irish Sessions, curated by Tony DeMarco, February 2, March 15, April 5, and May 17. Book Day, for which the Irish Arts Center distributes thousands of free books in New York’s five boroughs in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, returns for its 12th year on March 15.
For the season, IAC’s latest exhibition will showcase women artists whose work reclaims traditional physical and cultural spaces using abstract art. Reclaiming a Space, featuring Diana Copperwhite, Erin Lawlor, Helen O’Leary, and Dannielle Tegeder, will be on view throughout the building from January 29 to June 23.
For more information on the Irish Arts Center, and to see a detailed view of the Spring 2024 programming, visit here.
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