The Educational Alliance is planning a 47 million dollar gut renovation to its flagship building at 197 East Broadway on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Plans call to move the Art School from its longtime fifth floor space where there are traditional art studios with high ceilings, huge windows, and an abundance of natural light, to a smaller basement space with low ceilings, small windows, and little natural light. In addition, popular classes in welding and darkroom black and white photography will be discontinued. Plans call for the fifth floor space to be converted to a "multipurpose" room which will primarily be used for Board and other VIP functions as well as be rented out for weddings and other events. The Organizing Commitee to Save the Art School (oc2sas) was founded by Art School students striving to preserve this NYC treasure which over the decades has been home to the likes of Louise Nevelson, Mark Rothko, the Soyer brothers, Ben Shahan and countless others. For more information please see our website at: www.oc2sas.wordpress.com

To the Board of Directors of the Educational Alliance,

We are pleased that the Educational Alliance plans to embark on extensive renovations to its flagship building at 197 East Broadway. However we, the undersigned, urge you to ensure that the upcoming renovations to the building include plans to keep the Art School in its current fifth floor home or move it to a comparable space appropriate for preserving ALL of the art school’s offerings as well as honoring its essential and historic spirit.

New Yorkers need the Educational Alliance’s Art School which now provides traditional and affordable art classes in spacious studios with high ceilings and abundant natural light. They need an art school that continues to offer one of the last affordable opportunities in the metropolitan area to study darkroom photography and welding. They need the Educational Alliance to continue its historic mission – to be “an expression of Maimonides’ ultimate level of Tzedakah.”

Respectfully,