This is the story of Joan K. Davidson and the J.M. Kaplan Fund, New York’s hidden benefactors. “Scratch the surface of so many of the initiatives and ideas that have made New York a better place to live and work and you’ll find the deft hand of the J.M. Kaplan Fund… New York owes much to a wise, energetic, and committed woman, in this case, the Fund’s indomitable leader for many if its seventy-five years, Joan K. Davidson.” wrote Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. Join the New York preservation community for a special talk with preservationist and Kaplan Foundation alum Anthony C. Wood and writer Roberta Brandes Gratz, who will delve into the city-changing work of the J.M. Kaplan Fund and Joan K. Davidson, the second-generation leader of the Fund. Davidson is a trustee, president emeritus, and sponsor of a new Fund program, Furthermore Grants in Publishing, which she led after taking a leave from the Fund to serve as Commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation in the 1990s.

Join us to explore this foundation's legacy as patrons of the arts and artists, defenders of the natural and built environments, and innovators in activist philanthropy.

Co-hosted with Historic Districts Council, LANDMARK WEST!, Municipal Art Society of New York, and Village Preservation.