Tibetan art museum receives state recognition

Published on May 27, 2009 by Christy Tennant

The following article appeared in the Staten Island Advance May 24, 2009

Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art named to the New York State Register of Historic Places

by Karen O'Shea

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Tibetan art museum tucked away on Lighthouse Hill and built to resemble a Himalayan mountain monastery has been named to the New York State Register of Historic Places.

"The property is an extremely rare example of Tibetan-inspired architecture in the U.S.," Dan Keefe, a spokesman for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, said of the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art.

The museum joins other notable Island destinations like the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, Borough Hall and the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum on the state register, which recognizes important historical, architectural and cultural places.

The designation is largely honorific, but could help the museum apply for grants and funding for preservation.

And that's good news at a time when the Tibetan museum, like many other cultural organizations, is feeling the pinch of recession. The museum will find out in July how much city funding it can expect next year, and officials are pretty sure it will be less, not more.

Museum director Meg Ventrudo said a place on the state register is also a mark of distinction for the late museum founder, Jacques Marchais, an art collector and the patroness who built the museum in the 1940s with the help of master Italian stonemason Joseph Primiano.

"It really affirms Jacques Marchais' role as an important collector of Asian art and one of the first collectors of Tibetan art in the U.S.," Ms. Ventrudo said of the designation.

With its meditation garden, temple and main building, the museum was built to resemble a Himalayan monastery and is the oldest example of Tibetan-style architecture anywhere in the U.S.

Ms. Marchais ran a gallery in Manhattan but lived next door to the museum she built. While she never actually visited Tibet, her fascination with Eastern religion and art-collecting expertise prompted her to amass one of the finest collections of Tibetan and Himalayan art.

Listing on the state register makes the museum eligible to apply for state environmental protection fund grants.