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It’s official: The Center at West Park (CWP) is leaving the landmarked Romanesque Revival church at 165 West 86th Street.
In a statement issued Wednesday to ILTUWS, Executive Director Debby Hirshman announced that CWP will continue its programming through a new residency at St. Paul and St. Andrew (SPSA), located just a few blocks away at 263 W. 86th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue, as well as at select venues across the city.
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CWP’s departure comes three weeks after a high-profile rally inside the West Park Presbyterian Church, where Hirshman joined elected officials and a slate of notable New Yorkers — Mark Ruffalo, Matt Dillon, Fisher Stevens, J. Smith-Cameron, Richard Kind, Christian Slater, and others — in calling for the Center to remain in the space.
Though eviction papers were served in early June and the church’s attorney signaled that locks might be changed — potentially on the same day as the rally — Roger Leaf, chairman of the West-Park Administrative Commission, later told ILTUWS that the building’s remaining tenants — excluding CWP — would be given time for an orderly transition.
In Wednesday’s statement, Hirshman reaffirmed CWP’s commitment to its mission: to make the arts accessible, support artists at every stage of their careers, and cultivate diverse, intergenerational audiences.
CWP’s programming — including its Film Center, staged readings, music events, Evolution Festival, Object Movement puppetry program, and space subsidy initiative — will continue uninterrupted. The group’s new residency at SPSA will provide a home base, even as performances and events expand citywide.
“Over the past two and a half years, in a one-of-a-kind landmark building with seven performance and program spaces, CWP has grown into a self-sustaining community and cultural hub,” said Hirshman.
Hirshman, who was paramount in helping the Manhattan Jewish Community Center raise $85 million to build its center, also emphasized the organization’s pricing model, which includes pay-what-you-can options aimed at lowering barriers for families, artists, children’s programs, and local groups. (ILTUWS recently saw Michael Bamberger in Conversation with Richard Kind for free.)
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The future of the West-Park church remains uncertain. Alchemy Properties, the developer under contract to purchase the site, plans to build a 20-story luxury high-rise, which preservationists say would erase a vital community space and a piece of local history. The sanctuary’s acoustics and atmosphere have drawn comparisons to the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee — famously known as the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974, and regarded by music lovers as a must-visit venue on their checklist.
Meanwhile, CWP is pressing ahead. “We are deeply grateful to the diverse, intergenerational community of artists, audiences, and supporters who have made CWP what it is today,” Hirshman said.
For program updates or to support the campaign to preserve West Park, visit centeratwestpark.org.
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This ugly structure is on the way to being a pile of red dust. Hooray!
It’s always wonderful, I suppose, to hear from the architectural philistines.
I have less articulate words for this ignoble comment. Not a believer but a lover of the unique and interesting, I say to anyone as unthoughtful, inconsiderate and unthinking as Andy Davis, he might consider looking at some of his preferred scapes like Moscow and Beijing. The significantly interesting architecturals, oft built in honor to some god or emperor, thought to be such, were not touched even by the most adamant of commies.
Or perhaps Andy is the developer in which case, he’s made all of us locals very angry.
I don’t want another impersonal, glassy, reflective high end joint in our hood- they change the neighborhood for worse. WE need not celebrate the defense of ignorance – there are bigger fish to fry. 86 47.
While I have been on the side of the congregation throughout this unnecessarily overextended fiasco, I wish the Center well, and hope that their celeb supporters – worth a collective $500+-million – will put their money where their mouths are and help the Center find and pay for a new space. It’s too bad someone beat them to the Metro – which would have been PERFECT for them.
In the meantime, I wish the congregation and Presbytery well. And while even I will be sad to some degree to see the building go, it had simply become unfeasible to save it. I look forward to seeing what the developer has planned – and am happy that it will include plenty of space for the congregation and the church’s programs.