Brooklyn College Announces $10 Million Gift from Alumni Leonard and Claire Tow

Largest Gift in the College's History To Support Performing and Visual Arts on Campus

Claire Tow, Class of 1952, and Leonard Tow, Class of 1950, have presented their alma mater with the largest philanthropic gift in Brooklyn College history.

BROOKLYN, New York-May 13, 2003  Brooklyn College President Christoph M. Kimmich proudly announced today that alumni Leonard and Claire Tow will donate $10 million to Brooklyn College for a new Center for the Performing Arts on campus.

This gift, the largest in the College's history, will support and name the Leonard, '50, and Claire, '52, Tow Center for the Performing Arts.

The announcement will be made to the Brooklyn College community this evening at the College's annual Best of Brooklyn Dinner and Awards Gala benefiting the Presidential Scholarship Program and honoring another alumnus, Myron "Mike" Kandel '52, financial editor and anchor of CNN.

Brooklyn College is widely recognized for its dynamic arts curriculum and talented students and faculty. The Tow Center for the Performing Arts will further raise this standing, demonstrating the College's enduring commitment to performing and visual arts. It will be housed in an architecturally distinguished new building that will offer rehearsal and performance space, set design and construction workshops, ground-floor exhibition space, a double-height theater seating 200, a grand lobby and arcade, and classroom, meeting and reception rooms. As the center for a collaborative consortium of the performing arts, the Tow Center will attract top theorists and practicing artists and top students and faculty to its rich learning environment.

"The extraordinary generosity that Leonard and Claire have shown their alma mater will transform the arts on campus and we are exceptionally grateful," said Dr. Kimmich. "New York City has always been a powerful magnet for major talent in the visual and performing arts. Brooklyn College's dynamic curriculum, distinguished faculty, and gifted students create a perfect environment for the broad array of talent that makes New York City its home."

The performing arts at Brooklyn College enjoy a national and global reputation for excellence. The curriculum is shaped by a strong liberal arts tradition and combines broad liberal studies with rigorous training in theoretical, technical, historical, and practical dimensions of each craft. The College supports an array of performing arts, including music, film, dance, theater, and television and radio.

"Our outstanding students and faculty have made the arts at Brooklyn College a widely-recognized program," said Lindley Hanlon, Chair of the Arts Council and of the Department of Film at Brooklyn College. "This gift will enable our support of an arts curriculum that attracts talented students and faculty from around the world. A state-of-the-art facility will reflect these accomplishments and the importance of the arts at Brooklyn College."

Leonard and Claire Tow, residents of New Canaan, CT, are philanthropists dedicated both to Brooklyn College and to the performing arts. Mr. Tow, a communications industry leader, serves as a Trustee of the Brooklyn College Foundation. At Brooklyn College the Tows also fund a student internship program, student scholarships, faculty travel fellowships and distinguished professorship awards, as well as undergraduate travel stipends that enable students to study or conduct research in settings other than the United States.