Tenement Museum Gala Celebrates 30th Anniversary

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Immigration Museum Will Announce New Strategic Direction at Gala

April 13, 2018, New York, NY—The Tenement Museum’s 2018 Gala at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on April 24th will celebrate the Museum’s 30th anniversary as an institution dedicated to telling the story of American immigration—the core of our continually evolving national identity— by announcing a new strategic vision, which defines the Museum’s role at a time when its historic subject matter has become front-page news.

In December, the Tenement Museum opened its latest permanent exhibition, Under One Roof, expanding the Museum’s programming to include post-World War II immigration and marking the successful end of the Museum’s previous five year plan, a period in which the Museum doubled its annual visitorship to almost 250,000 people, including 50,000 students. Now, following the appointment of the Museum’s 3rd President, Kevin Jennings, a former Obama Administration Department of Education official and founder of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network), the Museum is ready to embark on its next chapter.

“As immigration continues to dominate our national conversation, the work of the Tenement Museum has never felt more urgent,” said Jennings. At the Gala, the Museum will announce its plan for the next five years to dramatically expand the impact of its programming—to reach millions, not thousands—with its message of how immigrants built and continue to build America, and in the process help to reshape the national narrative about immigration. The Museum believes that its trademark storytelling approach can build bridges of understanding across the chasms currently dividing our nation. “This is the Tenement Museum’s moment and we plan to rise to the occasion by dramatically expanding our programming beyond New York to reach all of America,” Jennings said.

In celebration of the Museum’s new direction, the Gala will honor Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and leading voice for the human rights of immigrants Jose Antonio Vargas, Museum founder Ruth Abram, former Museum Board Chair Paul J. Massey, Jr., and The Boston Consulting Group, whose pro bono help was instrumental in developing the way forward for the Museum.

For more information on the 2018 Tenement Museum Gala, visit www.tenement.org/gala