A Look Back at 2025 Programming: Gallery and Building Tours

As we come to the end of an incredibly successful year for Village Preservation programs, its time to take a look back at some of the events that made 2025 so special. 

This year we had the chance to explore our neighborhoods and beyond with many fascinating building and exhibit tours. Today we will take a look at a few of these, each with their own historic and cultural significance.

“Acts of Art in Greenwich Village” Gallery Tour at Hunter College

January 9th and March 27th

Installed at Hunter College’s Leubsdorf Gallery, the exhibition featured artworks from the late 1960s and 1970s by fourteen artists connected to Acts of Art, a gallery that was dedicated to showcasing the work of Black artists in downtown Manhattan. 

Village Preservation had the opportunity to receive two guided tours of the exhibition, led by Howard Singerman, Phyllis and Joseph Caroff Professor of Art History at Hunter College.

New York Studio School Tour

January 14th and March 26th

To help mark the 150th anniversary of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s birth, Village Preservation partnered with the New York Studio School for a tour of the school’s building, which was once the original Whitney Museum, and now contains many of her incredible artworks.

Also in celebration of this year’s Vanderbilt Whitney milestone, Village Preservation and the Studio School unveiled a new plaque at the site. Learn more here.

Stonewall Monument Visitor’s Center Tour

July 8th

This year, Village Preservation received a private tour of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, one of this year’s Village Award winners. This guided tour explored how the visitor center came to be and the story it tells.

The mission of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center (SNMVC) is to memorialize the legacy of the Stonewall Rebellion while serving as a beacon for generations to come and to visit the very site where history was made and the fight for full LGBTQ+ equality began.

“Maritime City” at the Seaport Museum

August 14th and December 3rd

This year, we were excited to receive two exclusive tours of the Seaport Museum’s latest exhibition, Maritime City, led by Martina Caruso, Director of Collections and Exhibitions. This exhibition highlights how New York City, as we know it today, arose from the sea. 

Throughout the extensive three-floor exhibition, five hundred forty carefully selected objects from the collections and archives of the Seaport Museum are on view to underscore how the city’s identity as a global capital of culture and finance is rooted in its origins as a seaport.

Member’s Garden Tour at Merchant’s House Museum

September 13th

For the second year in a row, we joined the Merchants House Museum for a chance for our members to wander the gorgeous gardens at the historic home.

Additionally, the museum’s head gardener, John Rommel gave fascinating background information on how he transformed the space into a little slice of paradise and what it takes for him to keep this garden in pristine condition in a modern urban environment and a changing climate.

Many of our 2025 programs have been archived on our YouTube page. Watch one (or more) of these recordings, and learn something new about our neighborhoods!