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The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation

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A unique aspect of the whale is that the public will be able to step inside to view its internal organs. Photo courtesy of the Whaling Museum

The Whaling Museum & Education Center of Cold Spring Harbor has  announced the new fabrication and acquisition of a life-size inflatable whale, which will travel to locations across Long Island in a new “Whale on Wheels” educational program. 

This will be the only whale of its kind in the state of New York and will serve as a crucial educational tool to address the needs of children from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the museum’s traveling programs.

Photo courtesy of The Whaling Museum

The inflatable whale is a 45-foot Sperm Whale. A unique aspect of the whale is that the public will be able to step inside to view its internal organs. The inflatable is a custom piece fabricated by the company Landmark Creations in Minnesota, and will use pressurized air with a blower. The whale’s design was modeled utilizing multiple sperm whale images.

Museum educators will use the whale to bring the sperm whale’s story, history, and biology to life. Sperm whales are the largest of the toothed whales, and are found in all deep oceans worldwide. With their massive, square-shaped heads, adult males can weigh 90,000 to 100,000 pounds, which is more than 700 people combined. From the height of Yankee whaling in the 19th century through the 1970’s, sperm whales were heavily targeted by American and international whalers, pushing the whale to the brink of extinction. An international ban on whaling went into effect in 1987.

Today, sperm whale populations are still slow to recover, and are currently listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Sperm whales are threatened by vessel strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, marine debris ingestion, and other threats from human impacts on the ocean environment. 

Similar to real whales, the inflatable whale is designed with realistic scars on its body, such as propeller scars on its tail, to help demonstrate the pressures whales face today.

Main support for this project comes from a $16,050 grant from The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, which primarily supports the study of Long Island history and its role in the American experience. Robert D. L. Gardiner was the 16th Lord of the Manor of Gardiner’s Island until his death in 2004. The Foundation is inspired by Gardiner’s personal passion for New York history.

“We are very thankful to the Gardiner Foundation for partnering with our Museum to enable our education team to provide schools and libraries with the greatest teaching tool of all — a traveling life-size whale,” noted Nomi Dayan, Executive Director of the museum.

Additional funding for this project comes from an Innovation Grant awarded from the Long Island Library Resources Council, which supports unique and new projects in cultural institutions in the region.

The whale will arrive at the museum at the end of November, and the museum plans to introduce the whale to the public in Spring 2025. 

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The new website includes information about William Sidney Mount's home in Stony Brook.

The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation and grant recipient The Heckscher Museum of Art have announced the launch of the new website, Historic Artists’ Sites of Long Island (www.lihistoricartistssites.org), developed by Graphic Image Group, Inc. 

From the 19th century to present times, Long Island has held a special place in the creative imagination. From native landscape and genre painters William Sidney Mount and his family to modernist transplants like Arthur Dove and Helen Torr and the abstract expressionists who clustered on the East End, artists working in various styles and media, from traditional to experimental, have found common ground here.

The new website includes information about the Dove/Torr Cottage in Centerport

“Long Island has a proud place in American art history. Offering exceptional light and air, along with inspirational vistas, artists have always flocked here to live and work. This website links the studios and homes of some of America’s greatest artists over centuries. It offers a historic view into another aspect of our region’s rich creative and cultural heritage,” said Kathryn M. Curran, Executive Director of The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation in describing the importance of these locations, “I strongly urge you to explore these places and support the stewards who are dedicated to their oversight and promote their legacy.” 

The website is an online guide to discover the living and working environments of some of America’s most influential artists. Visitors to the site can explore these homes and studios, experience the surroundings that inspired the artists, and gain insights into their creative processes. Many of these locations are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Locations on the website include the Arthur Dove and Helen Torr Cottage in  Centerport — The Heckscher Museum of Art; Arts Center at Duck Creek (artist John Little) in East Hampton; D’Amico Institute (The Art Barge) (artists Victor D’Amico and Mabel Birckhead D’Amico) in Amagansett; Dan Flavin Art Institute at Dia Bridgehampton; and the Elaine de Kooning House in East Hampton; and the Leiber Museum (designer Judith Leiber and artist Gerson Leiber) in  East Hampton.

It also includes information about the LongHouse Reserve (artist Jack Lenor Larsen) in East Hampton; Pollock-Krasner House (Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner), East Hampton — Stony Brook University; Thomas and Mary Nimmo Moran Studio in East Hampton; Watermill Center (artist Robert Wilson) in Water Mill and the Hawkins/Mount House in Stony Brook, home of William Sidney Mount — Long Island Museum.

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Big Bill the Tory at the Sherwood-Jayne Farm in East Setauket. Photo by Darren St. George, Preservation Long Island

Preservation Long Island, a regional preservation advocacy group, was awarded a $2,000 reimbursement grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation. The announcement was made in a press release on Jan. 28. The grant has helped Preservation Long Island to preserve valuable operating funds and redirect a portion of funding towards improving online programming capacity.

“We are so grateful for the continued support from the Gardiner Foundation, especially during this challenging time”, said Alexandra Wolfe, Executive Director of Preservation Long Island. “In light of the pandemic, Preservation Long Island, like most of its institutional colleagues, has had to swiftly transition to online platforms to implement our educational and advocacy programs. Relief funds from the Gardiner Foundation have supported technology upgrades and the purchase of video production equipment to improve the quality of programs that have been reformatted for online engagement and feature prominently at our website and Vimeo channel”.

Preservation Long Island initiatives with expanded virtual offerings and enhanced online components include the Jupiter Hammon Project (which now incorporates a growing collection of virtual discussions about salient topics related to the study of enslavement in the north); “Historian’s Stories” where town historians present local history; virtual exhibitions and events with regional partner organizations; and tutorial presentations to help communities and individuals navigate our many preservation advocacy tools including the new Local Landmark Law Locator that provides an easy way to explore local landmark laws in our region.

“The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation hopes that these funds will alleviate at least a small part of Preservation Long Island’s financial burden during these extraordinary times,” said Kathryn M. Curran, Executive Director of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation. 

Preservation Long Island maintains and interprets historic sites and collections that embody various aspects of Long Island’s history including:

Joseph Lloyd Manor, Lloyd Harbor http://preservationlongisland.org/joseph-lloyd-manor/

Custom House, Sag Harbor http://preservationlongisland.org/custom-house/

Sherwood-Jayne Farm, Setauket http://preservationlongisland.org/sherwood-jayne-farm/

Old Methodist Church and Exhibition Gallery http://preservationlongisland.org/methodist-church/

 For more information, visit www.preservationlongisland.org.

 

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The Carriage Shed pictured post stabilization. Photo from Caroline Church of Brookhaven

The Carriage Shed at the Caroline Church of Brookhaven continues to receive a makeover.

The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation announced Jan. 11 it had recently awarded the church a matching grant of $10,950. The grant is to cover the cost of replacing the cedar roof on the shed, and according to Barbara Russell, a junior warden at the church and Town of Brookhaven historian, work has already started on the roof as Jan. 15.

The grant marks the second time in the last two years the church has received funds from the foundation. The first matching grant of $23,700 was awarded in 2017 and was used to help stabilize the shed, which was built in 1887. The shed’s internal framework needed replacing as the supporting locust poles were sinking into the ground, according to Russell.

The historian said the congregation was grateful to the foundation for its help.

“Our shared commitment to telling the story of our rich heritage of our communities is exemplified in our ongoing collaboration,” Russell said. “We look forward to the full restoration of the shed in time for our [upcoming] anniversary celebration.”

Father Richard Visconti, rector of Caroline Church, above, watches the Carriage Shed roof being installed. Photo from Caroline Church of Brookhaven

Kathryn Curran, executive director of the Gardiner foundation, called the shed “an icon to the community.” When a nonprofit like the Caroline Church applies for a matching grant from the foundation, she said, they must have the full funding match in place. She added two-part projects like the shed are not unusual.

“There are times when an organization needs to break the project into doable funded portions,” she said. “When a RDLGF grant is awarded, an applicant must complete that first contracted grant and have their final report accepted by the foundation before another application will be reviewed. The Caroline Church applied for two separate grants in two years to complete this project.”

Located on the east side of Bates Road on the church’s property, the Carriage Shed is one of four contributing structures to the church being on the National Register of Historic Places. The shed was initially intended for members to park their carriages while attending services and in later years was used for parishioners to park their cars.

The Caroline Church celebrates its 296th anniversary later this month. Russell said the congregation will commemorate the milestone at their 9:30 a.m. service Jan. 27, and an event to celebrate the restored shed will be held at a later date.

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