Said Winnick Family Foundation chair Karen Winnick: “We were very happy that the Yeshiva University Museum curators at the Center chose this distinctive work to feature in Winnick Hall for an unprecedented five months. Art connoisseurs, of course, know that the artist known as L.T. Syms leads a wonderful double life. In Manhattan social circles, she is the wife of famed clothier Sy Syms. Lynne and Sy are one of the leading philanthropic couples in New York City, much honored for their history of generous giving to education, art and Jewish needs. In the art world, however, she is greatly admired for her realistic, powerful figurative sculptures.”
Said the artist: “It was a honor to be recognized by the university curators. It was equally delightful to discover that the light-filled, spacious Winnick Gallery is one of the best art spaces and settings in all of Manhattan.”
Responded Winnick Foundation founder Gary Winnick (http://www.pacificcap.com/
Said Dr. Jacob Wisse, the museum’s new director, appointed in February: “We were drawn to Lynn’s sculptures because they almost always capture people in motion, people drawn directly from her own full life and Jewish tradition. She sculpts the people she admires, those she loves, and those who inspire her.”
Among the notable people she has sculpted is her husband, Sy Syms, founder of Syms Corporation – now run by his daughter Marcy who has expanded the business to more than three dozen apparel stores in key locations across North America. The striking sculpture of Lynn’s husband today sits outside the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University’s uptown campus on West 185 Street, funded by the couple with a founder’s grant of $12.5 million in 1987.
About Yeshiva University Museum
Since its founding in 1973, Yeshiva University Museum’s changing exhibits have celebrated the culturally diverse intellectual and artistic achievements of 3,000 years of Jewish experience. The Museum provides a window into Jewish culture around the world and throughout history through its acclaimed multi-disciplinary exhibitions and award-winning publications. By educating audiences of all ages with dynamic interpretations of Jewish life, past and present, along with wide-ranging cultural offerings and programs, the Museum attracts young and old, Jewish and non-Jewish audiences. Visit the Museum at yumuseum.org on the Web.
About the Center for Jewish History
The Center for Jewish History is a unique partnership of five major institutions of Jewish scholarship, history, and art: the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Baeck Institute, the Yeshiva University Museum, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
The Center serves the worldwide academic and general communities with combined holdings of approximately 100 million archival documents, a half million books, and thousands of photographs, artifacts, paintings, and textiles—the largest repository documenting the Jewish experience outside of Israel. Visit the Center at cjh.org/ on the Web.
About the Winnick Family Foundation
The Winnick Family Foundation encourages project-specific programs but also selectively supports capital campaigns and unrestricted gifts to grantee organizations. There is a preference for projects in Los Angeles and New York – or those having an international component.
Foundation naming grants include:
•Winnick Family Clinical Research Institute at Cedars Sinai Hospital
•Winnick House and Arnold S. Winnick Student Center at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University
•Winnick International Conference Center at the Simon Wiesenthal Center / Jerusalem
•Winnick Children’s Zoo in Los Angeles
•Winnick Faculty Scholar at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University
•Winnick Hall at the Skirball Cultural Center
•Arnold & Blanche Winnick Popular Library and Karen Winnick Children’s Gallery at the Los Angeles Central Library
•Winnick Hillel House at Syracuse University
•Winnick Board Room at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City
•Winnick Winners Mentoring Program for the Los Angeles Unified School District
•Winnick Fellows at UCLA School of Medicine
•Winnick Gallery at Yeshiva University Museum, Center for Jewish History
Karen and Gary Winnick (http://gwinnick.wordpress.com/
They have also funded the transformation of the on-campus Post mansion administrative center – renamed Winnick House – as well as the main cafeteria which is now named in honor of Mr. Winnick’s late father.
In California, the Foundation has supported educational programs at the California Science Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, KOREH L.A., the Los Angeles Zoo, L.A.’s Best Afterschool Program, the Wonder of Reading, the Fulfillment Fund and Noah’s Ark at the Skirball Center.
Among the many other Foundation grantees are the Special Olympics, The Center for Jewish History, Children’s Scholarship Fund, Partnership for Better Schools, Teach for America, The Gettysburg Foundation, The National Parks Foundation, Best Friends Animal Society, The Los Angeles Police Foundation, Shoah Foundation, and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University.
The Foundation also supports charities operating outside the United States, including the International Medical Corps, Flora and Fauna, World Wildlife Fund, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, the Israel Museum, the Israel Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Zoo, Heifer International and the Bloomfield Science Museum at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. For more information on the Foundation and its work, visit http://www.winnickfamilyfoundation.com on the Web.
