HARKNESS DANCE CENTER AT 92ND STREET Y RECEIVES $5 MILLION GIFT

The Harkness Dance Center at the 92nd Street Y in New York has received a $5 million donation from its board member Jody Gottfried Arnhold—who founded the organization’s Dance Education Laboratory with Joan Finkelstein and Ann Biddle in 1995—and her husband, John. The gift will support an expansion project that will create more studio space for the center.

“To have Jody as a partner with us, to think through what the physical space should look like at the Y and who should populate it for the twenty-first century is a real gift, not just of money but also of talent and resources that we plan to put to good use,” Laurence Belfer, the chairman of the board at the 92nd Street Y, told the New York Times_.

Jody Gottfried Arnhold has taught dance at public schools throughout the city for more than two decades and is a fierce advocate for the medium. Over the years, she has backed the dance program at the New York City Department of Education; created the Arnhold Graduate Dance Education Program at Hunter College; and was the benefactor behind the doctorate in dance education at Teachers College, Columbia University.