Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Purpose: Serving as Centers of Community Engagement The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is located in a neighborhood that has served as a gateway to America for more than 150 years, containing rich layers of immigrant cultures and institutions that encompass numerous nations and generations. Presently, the neighborhood is home to thousands of newcomers from the Dominican Republic, China, the Philippines, Poland, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Japan, Korea, and India. Thirty-six percent of the area residents are foreign born and 60 percent speak a language other than English at home. The core of the museum's public programming is the 1863 tenement building, where interpretation brings the immigrant past to life for more than 100,000 visitors each year. Currently, five restored apartments present the stories of actual families who lived there, selected from approximately 7,000 people who resided n the building between 1863 and 1935. This grant will help support Immigrant Exchange, a multifaceted, ongoing initiative that is fundamental to the museum's strategic plan. The initiative includes a variety of public programming, arts programming, and immigrant services, as well as collaborative efforts to build community capacity for historic interpretation and preservation.