Press

Grant for campus upgrades at PMP

by Shelter Island Reporter Staff, Featured Story, 7/27/2017
COURTESY PHOTO | Accessibility upgrades have been made to the Perlman campus.
COURTESY PHOTO | Accessibility upgrades have been made to the Perlman campus.

With a generous grant of $10,000 from the Senior Citizens Foundation of Shelter Island (SCF), the Perlman Music Program (PMP) has made significant upgrades to its campus, specifically designed to improve the experience of senior citizens and people with disabilities in attendance at concerts. PMP is profoundly grateful to its partners at SCF, with special thanks to its president, Barbara Silverstone, and its vice president, Judy Daniels, for their guidance.

Approximately 10,000 people attend PMP events annually, providing an essential community platform for its student and alumni performers. Senior citizens, represent the largest demographic, and persons with disabilities comprise nearly half of this audience. Since 2016, PMP has worked in tandem with SCF to identify areas for improvement on its campus and overall audience experience. PMP has implemented paving upgrades, added signage, created drop-off zones, and redesigned entrances, among other improvements — all in time for the first concert of the season under the Geffenberg Performance Tent on June 30.

“We are so grateful to the Senior Citizens Foundation of Shelter Island for reaching out to PMP and proposing these adjustments to our campus. This generous grant will be transformational for those visitors who worry about how they’ll get from their car to their seat safely. I am happy we can make their experience at PMP more enjoyable, so they too can focus on the extraordinary music being presented by our students and alumni,” said PMP Founder and Director Toby Perlman.

Ms. Daniels and Ms. Silverstone of SCF commented, “The Senior Citizens Foundation of Shelter Island is pleased to support the Perlman Music Program’s initiative in making their campus more accessible to persons with disabilities and enhancing our senior population’s attendance and enjoyment of this wonderful cultural asset in our community.”

Visitors can learn about campus accessibility features in advance by visiting perlmanmusicprogram.org or calling the New York City offices at (212) 877-5045.

A non-profit charitable foundation serving Shelter Island's senior citizens