BY ALINE REYNOLDS | The Seaport Museum’s re-opening is still months away, according to its current interim operator, the Museum of the City of New York.
M.C.N.Y. has requested nearly $1.5 million in funds from the city’s 2013-14 capital budget — more than half of which would go toward the restoration of the 1908 lightship, the Ambrose, one of the museum’s eight historic vessels.
“If M.C.N.Y. were a place where you could dry-dock boats, we could do it for free,” said M.C.N.Y. Director Susan Henshaw Jones. “But unlike curatorial services, [which are largely coming from M.C.N.Y.], we don’t have those abilities to do that on an in-kind basis.”
Though all the museum’s vessels require work, the Ambrose, in particular, has “extensive needs,” according to Jones.
“It hasn’t been dry-docked for a very long time,” said Jones.
The lightship, which the Seaport Museum acquired from the U.S. Coast Guard in the 1960s, once shepherded ships to safety into New York harbor. The Ambrose served as an exhibit space for navigation artifacts, photographs and charts until earlier this year, when activities on the vessel ceased due to the museum’s financial hardships.
M.C.N.Y. is also seeking half-a-million dollars in funding for the museum’s ticket booth and other structures on Pier 16; and $125,000 for the hiring of the director of historic ships, who is charged with the maintenance and programming of the museum’s fleet.
“One thing you have to remember is, this is like one of hundreds of [financial] requests we’re going to have to put before many, many, many entities,” said Jones.
The maritime museum’s Fulton Street exhibit space, Jones noted, is slated to open in the third week of January.
Meanwhile, two archivists for the museum’s library have been hired.
“We’re glad to hear the M.C.N.Y. is looking into repair and maintenance of the Ambrose, and we’re glad to see there’s community support behind it,” said David Sheldon, steering committee member of the grassroots group Save Our Seaport.
S.O.S. presented a petition of more than 5,000 signatures they collected over the summer to Councilmember Margaret Chin’s legislative office last Thursday, Oct. 27, reiterating the group’s longtime call to the city to help salvage the dying museum.
Though the maritime museum appears to be making a comeback under the direction of M.C.N.Y., obstacles still lie in its path, according to Peter Stanford, the museum’s founder and former president.
“Our call to the Mayor, the [city] Department of Cultural Affairs, and the City Council still stands,” said Stanford. “We salute the efforts taken, and urge a continued positive role for the city in the life of the museum that is the keeper of its maritime heritage.”
John Fratta, chair of Community Board 1’s Seaport-Civic Center Committee, along with Michael Levine, the board’s director of land use and planning, recently met with M.C.N.Y. staff to offer counsel on how to allocate current and future Seaport Museum funds. C.B. 1 passed a resolution at its Oct. 25 full board meeting backing M.C.N.Y.’s request for city funding.
Though the meeting went “very well,” Fratta said he is weary to sing M.C.N.Y.’s praises too soon.
“I get a good vibe from them, but in the past good vibes have turned sour,” said Fratta. “Right now, we’re on a honeymoon with each other. We want to see if the marriage is going to work.”
At the meeting, the committee urged Jones and her team to secure funding for a staff curator, and also requested that at least two C.B. 1 members be appointed to the Seaport Museum’s interim board of directors. Previously, Harold Reed was the only person from C.B. 1 serving on the museum’s board.
“It’s totally unacceptable to us not to have people on the board,” said Fratta.
“We couldn’t be happier with [M.C.N.Y.], but we’re acknowledging they’ve got an uphill battle and there’s a lot of work to do,” echoed Mike Cohen, one of the part-time captains of the Pioneer, the Lettie G. Howard and the W.O. Decker — the museum’s three mobile vessels.
The Wavertree — the museum’s flagship vessel — and the Peking also need considerable maintenance work, according to Cohen.
“We need to get our volunteers back working on the boats,” added Cohen. “There’s no indication of that yet. I expect to know the answer to that soon.”
“They said they’d come back to committee… to keep us updated,” chimed in Fratta, who signed the S.O.S. petition.
Asked if the petition is a belated push to revive the museum, Cohen replied, “We did feel it needed to be delivered — certainly [with] issues outstanding.”
S.O.S. refrained from updating the petition’s message, Cohen noted, since, “people signed it saying a certain thing, and we shouldn’t change it to say something else.”
Fratta believes the petition will also attract donors to the museum.
“It makes sense to get the signatures, just to show those in power that there’s huge, huge support [for] the museum,” said Fratta.
