2015 Village Awardees – Where Are They Now?
On June 17, 2015 Village Preservation held its 35th Annual Meeting and 25th Annual Village Awards in the landmarked Auditorium of The New School. That event, emceed by Calvin Trillin, honored some amazing awardees, including Barbara Shaum, Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, David Rothenberg, The Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation, 201 East 12th Street Renovation, and our Regina Kellerman Awardee: James & Karla Murray. Here’s a quick look back at each ten years later:
The Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation
No. 526 LaGuardia Place is the former studio and home of sculptor Chaim Gross and his wife Renee, now home of the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation. Gross’s art dating from the 1920s through the 1980s can be found in the permanent collections of such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. The foundation’s current exhibition, Art for All: Innovations in 20th-century Printmaking, is running through June 28, 2025. Renee and Chaim Gross collected hundreds of prints, many of which are shown for the first time in this exhibition. From Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s 1895 lithograph made during the Parisian Belle Époque to a 1995 silkscreen by New York artist Gladys Burrows, the exhibition references seismic shifts in social structures, politics, and economies over the span of a century.
Read more about the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation here.
James & Karla Murray
Our 2015 Regina Kellerman Awardees James and Karla Murray have continued their efforts to highlight the beloved small businesses of NYC. Since 2015, they have released two new books, STORE FRONT NYC: Photographs of the City’s Independent Shops, Past and Present, in 2023 (watch our 2024 program with them here), and GREAT BARS OF NEW YORK CITY: 30 of Manhattan’s Favorite Storied Drinking Establishments, in 2024. We also did a public program with them on one of their earlier books, STOREFRONT II: A History Preserved, which you can watch here.
Read more about James and Karla here.
Barbara Shaum
Barbara was an East Village artisan sandal maker. She was recognized for contributing to the quality of life in the East Village through her creativity and her determination to keep her small business alive and thriving for over fifty years. Sadly, Barbara Shaum passed away just three months after receiving her Village Award on September 17, 2015. She was 86.
Read more about Barbara Shaum here.
Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks
In 2015 we honored Bonnie Slotnick’s 18-year old business specializing in antiquarian and out-of-print books on food, beverages, etiquette, entertaining, and housekeeping, and we are happy to report it is still going strong ten years later at 28 years! We were also happy in 2015 to honor Bonnie’s new landlords, Garth and Margo Johnson, who provided her with a new reasonable lease on East 2nd Street when she lost her lease at her old location on West 10th Street.
Read more about Bonnie Slotnick here.
David Rothenberg
Now 91 years old, Rothenberg began his career as a producer and publicist for many memorable productions on and off Broadway at many Village theaters, including The Public Theatre, the Actor’s Playhouse, and the Astor Place Theater. In 1966 he read a script that would change his life and the lives of thousands of people. The play “Fortune and Men’s Eyes” was written by a formerly incarcerated playwright named John Herbert. It opened on February 23, 1967 in the small Greenwich Village theater, the Actors’ Playhouse. The Fortune Society grew out of Rothenberg’s advocacy work surrounding the play and grew over the decades to become a hugely successful prisoner advocacy and reintegration organization. In 1989, David was one of the first openly gay people to run for City Council, and he has won dozens of awards during his illustrious career.
Read more about David Rothenberg here.
201 East 12th Street Renovation
We love giving awards to thoughtful renovations that go above and beyond what is required. 201 East 12th Street was a special renovation because it is not an individual landmark nor is it in a historic district. Its simply a beautiful historic building whose owner was willing to make the investment in the property and trust in the restoration team’s vision.
Read more about this renovation.
Read more about all our am0azing awardees here.