The latest from Walton Family Foundation ... Ford Foundation ... New Jewish Home

There is a new executive director at The Drawing Center. Laura Hoptman will take on the new role effective on Sept. 10, The New York Times reports. She’s a longtime art curator and currently serves in that capacity in the department of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art. She will succeed Brett Littman who left the post after 11 years in April to lead the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City.

The Drawing Center is located in the SoHo area of Manhattan and promotes drawing as a means of expressing contemporary culture, the future of art and creativity, according to its website.

“Founded in 1977 by Martha Beck (1938-2014), a curator of drawings at the Museum of Modern Art, it is one of three small, non-collecting nonprofits, called alternative spaces, that sprang up in the decade and it has managed to persist in downtown Manhattan despite rising rents,” the Times writes.

An apartment complex run by The New Jewish Home has a singing nun of its own. Sister Martie-Louise Vernimmen was honored as the Kittay Senior Apartment’s tenant of the year in July and sang a rendition of Bette Midler’s “The Rose” to celebrate, the New York Daily News reports. While a copy of her singing that song could not be located, NYN Media did track down another video featuring the 83-year-old crooner:

The Ford Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation are pushing ahead with a new initiative that aims to boost diversity in museum leadership. The Diversity in Museum Leadership Initiative began last November and has brought 20 museums into the fold nationwide, Stanford Social Innovation Review reports.

Read more here.

A Buffalo woman could not find a landlord who would rent an apartment to her despite having a Section 8 voucher, writes Judi Kende, a vice president at Enterprise Community Partners, in the independent publication Shelter Force. The article is all about a woman named Elizabeth Barnes who worked from age 15 until Parkinson’s Disease later disrupted her life at 41, leading her to be homeless with a child in her care.

“One landlord even told her, ‘I don’t rent to those type of people,’” reads the story. “Landlords would brazenly explain to Barnes that they were refusing her because they didn’t want to carry out the inspections associated with Section 8, or they believed tenants who use Section 8 vouchers are ‘difficult.’ Some landlords even complained about past tenants who were single mothers who supposedly couldn’t control their children.”

A coalition of nonprofits has a few points in response to proposed changes to the specialized high school admissions process. Plans to shake up how students are admitted to schools such as Brooklyn Tech and Stuyvesant High School have been criticized for boosting the prospects of admittance for Black and Latino students at the expense of Asian Americans. Opponents  rallied yesterday in front of City Hall, the New York Post reports.

A July 30 press release outlined points of agreement among about three dozen nonprofits serving people of Asian or Pacific Islands heritage. Here is an abridged version of their six points.

1. Diverse and inclusive school environments are beneficial to all students.
2. The NYC Department of Education needs to address inequities in education across Pre-K through 12th grade and examine current processes and admission policies.
3. No family or parent from any community should be shamed in discussions around education and schooling.
4. Navigating the NYC school system is especially difficult for APA families facing language and cultural barriers or lack of historical education access.
5. The DOE needs to take responsibility in providing students with healthy learning environments that foster critical social, emotional, and academic growth.
6. All communities should be involved in constructive dialogue, especially when critical decisions are being made about schools, not just certain communities.

A representative of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families said post-publication that the July 30 statement did not take a stance on the issue one way or another.

Send your press releases, photos, and word of your latest happenings to reporter Zach Williams at zwilliams@nynmedia.com.