Did you know that Village Preservation members receive advance notice of many of our public programs? Our tours and other programs sometimes offer limited capacity, and often fill up quickly. By becoming a member, you can take advantage of that advanced notice and register before the general public. Find out how to become a member here.

Irving Berlin: From Penniless Immigrant to America’s Songwriter

Join us on a journey to learn about the most prolific of America’s songwriters, Irving Berlin. Learn about his dramatic move, fleeing the pogroms against Jews in imperial Russia to his arrival in the bustling immigrant communities of the Lower East Side. We’ll look at his beginnings as a street performer and his rise as a Tin Pan Alley composer. We’ll explore the business of music song sheets and why they once were a very popular purchase, and will follow Berlin’s ascendancy to Broadway and eventually Hollywood. This talk will use original recordings and film clips, and show many rarely seen historic photos.

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Tour of the Seaport Museum’s Exhibition: Maritime City

Join us for an exclusive tour of the Seaport Museum’s latest exhibition, Maritime City, which highlights how New York City, as we know it today, arose from the sea. Throughout the extensive three-floor exhibition, 540 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.

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A Fifth Avenue Holiday: Members-Only Party

Come celebrate this festive season with Village Preservation in the Parlor of the historic Salmagundi Club. Enjoy the sounds of ragtime pianist Ramona Baker and the beautiful interior of the 1854 Fifth Avenue mansion!

Please note: Registration is NOT confirmed until you receive a personalized email from our Programming Team. We will check your membership status prior to sending your personalized registration confirmation.

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3rd Annual Sullivan-Thompson Historic District Holiday Shop and Stroll

Check-in point: TBD
Co-sponsor: Sullivan-Thompson Historic District Business Association

Save the date! Join us in celebrating South Village month by coming down to the Sullivan-Thompson Historic District for some holiday shopping. Take a stroll among the district’s many wonderful independent stores and businesses while enjoying the festive decor. Several shops will be offering treats, prizes, or discounts for those who sign up. 

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Democracy as Creative Practice

Democracy is fragile, as we are learning. Can we renew it by fostering more democratic ways of interacting in our neighborhoods? The East Village has long been home to cultural institutions that play a key role in bringing communities together. What role might they play in promoting a more vigorous form of everyday politics and stimulating a collective commitment to democratic engagement?

Join us as we grapple with these questions around a Long Table, a format created by artist Lois Weaver to foster open-ended, nonhierarchical participation.

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The Eternal Space: 10th Anniversary Staged Reading

Join Untapped New York and Village Preservation for an extraordinary two-night event as The Eternal Space, a play centering around the demolition of the Old Pennsylvania Station, returns to commemorate its 10th Anniversary!

Performed at the Westbeth Community Room, this acclaimed play is back with a special staged reading that promises to captivate both new audiences and longtime fans.

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The Inside Story of New York’s Iconic Music Club, The Bottom Line

Join us for a talk with the co-author of this new book on a slice of New York’s famed music history, Positively Fourth and Mercer: The Inside Story of New York’s Iconic Music Club, The Bottom Line. Award-winning music journalist Billy Altman will be in conversation with Village Preservation’s Executive Director Andrew Berman.

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Learning to Welcome: Refugees in the Village, 1937-1966

Join us in celebrating the immigrant history of the South Village with a special talk by Mary Elizabeth Brown, the Center for Migration Studies’ archivist and frequent speaker on Catholic Churches in the Village. We’ll take a look at how the efforts that began with the tightly focused Committee on Catholic Refugees from Germany in the wake of Hitler’s attacks on “non-Aryans” morphed in a multifaceted global Catholic Committee for Refugees after World War II. Being headquartered in the East and West Villages with links to the South Village mattered for being able to raise money and build community for the early trickle of refugees.