Mission
The Art Deco Society of New York is a non-profit organization that advocates for the appreciation, understanding, celebration, documentation, and preservation of Art Deco architecture, design, and culture in New York and around the world.
The Art Deco Society of New York is a recognized 501c3 not-for-profit, member supported organization and is a member of the International Coalition of Art Deco Societies (ICADS), an organization of Art Deco societies that hosts the World Congress on Art Deco every two years in an important Deco City around the world.
Board of Directors
President: Roberta Nusim
Vice-President: Linda Zagaria
Treasurer: William Curry
Board Members: George Calderaro, Kathy Rosenblatt, Greer St. John, Kiely Schultz, Nina Skriloff, Stephen H. Van Dyk
Advisory Board Members: Donald Albrecht, Simeon Bankoff, Marilyn F. Friedman, Vicki Gold Levi, Ken Gross, Susan Henshaw Jones, Audrey Lipton, Benjamin Macklowe, Kathleen Murphy Skolnik, Anthony W. Robins, Bob Rose
ADSNY Leadership
President: Roberta Nusim holds a BA and MA from the City College of New York, and has a long career in education, in New York City, which began as a junior high school teacher and reading specialist in the southeast Bronx, before starting an international educational publishing company. For more than three decades her company provided innovative, award-winning free curriculum materials to students in grades K-12 in schools throughout New York City, New York State, and beyond. As a native New Yorker with a lifelong interest in architecture and design, Nusim began as an ADSNY volunteer in 2005 and in 2013 assumed the role of President of the Board. Her mission has been to share her passion for New York and its rich cultural history, architecture, and design in all the boroughs by providing innovative programs and resources—for young people to adults, and with native New Yorkers and newcomers alike.
Vice-President: Linda Zagaria. ADSNY welcomes back to the Board native New Yorker Linda Zagaria, who previously served as Vice President of ADSNY. She held the position of Executive Director of the Beaux Arts Alliance, a non-profit cultural organization dedicated to celebrating the cultural links between France and the United States. As educator and school administrator, she was responsible for curriculum development and implementation, grant writing, and organizing and conducting professional development workshops and conferences. From 2016 to 2020 Zagaria served as President of the National Arts Club, where she is still active.
Treasurer: William Curry joined ADSNY's Board as Treasurer in October 2022. Bill is Financial Advisor and First Vice President in the Wealth Management Division of Morgan Stanley, where he has been named to the Pacesetter's Club, a global recognition program for Financial Advisors who have demonstrated the highest professional standards and first class client service. Bill is a graduate of The Ohio State University’s Max M. Fisher College of Business with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.
Board Member: George Calderaro began his preservation career thirty years ago as a staff member at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Since then, he has been an active volunteer member of and contributor to the New York City preservation movement as a board member of the Historic Districts Council, the 29th Street Neighborhood Association, the Friends of the Upper East Side, the Art Deco Society New York, and the Victorian Society New York where he chairs the preservation committee. Calderaro is founding director of the Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project which commemorates and continues the legacy of the birthplace of American popular music on West 28th Street. He was a founding member of Save Gansevoort Market and a member of the Landmarks Committee of Manhattan Community Board 1.
Board Member: Kathy Rosenblatt. ADSNY is delighted to welcome back to its Board long time ADSNY member and frequent volunteer Kathy Rosenblatt, ADSNY’s unofficial resident appraiser. Kathy has a diverse and art related career. She is a professional appraiser of 20th – 21st Century fine art and decorative arts since 2003. Her personal interest in Art Deco/Art Moderne led her, together with ADSNY member Joan Kahr, to develop ADSNY’s, “Art Deco/Art Moderne Resource Guide”, the first comprehensive directory of its kind in the New York metropolitan area (2007). A former Board Member of the Appraisers Association of America (AAA) from 2007-2016, she has been teaching Appraising Writing Workshop since 2009 and remains an active member of the organization.
Board Member: Greer St. John, a native New Yorker, started in the Financial Service business in the late 1980s, after she decided to leave her acting career. St. John started with a boutique firm called Berkeley Securities, where she worked in commodities, and later became stockbroker with Lehman Brothers. Three years later she went on to become a Financial Planner with Prudential Individual Financial Services. After 19 years, she retired from YMCA Retirement Fund where she was Assistant Director of Education / Customer Service and is currently a voiceover artist.
Board Member: Kiely Schultz. Kiely is a practicing Internal Medicine physician with a MBA in Healthcare Administration. She currently practices in both the inpatient and outpatient setting and is heavily involved with teaching residents and medical students. She inherited a lifelong love of art and art history from her parents. She began her volunteer activities for ADSNY in early 2022 and since then she oversees our Social Media team with multiple weekly postings.
Board Member: Nina Skriloff. Nina Skriloff became a member of ADSNY over 30 years ago. Nina has a long career in Broadway management, beginning with work for Producer/Director Harold Prince on Evita. Since then, she has worked on the original Broadway productions of La Cage Aux Follies, Merrily We Roll Along, Grand Hotel, Dreamgirls, The Will Rogers Follies and Sunset Boulevard amongst others. Her theatrical management career includes more than two decades as the International Manager for Chicago, Waitress, Pippin, Cabaret and Once in Japan, South Korea, Australia, Spain, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico and Dubai. In addition to her volunteer activities for ADSNY, Nina volunteers with other New York cultural organizations and travels extensively.
Board Member: Stephen H. Van Dyk is the former head of the Smithsonian Libraries Art Department, and worked in art, design, and architecture libraries for nearly forty years. With his vast experience in and knowledge of the field, Van Dyk has overseen the creation and development of the New York Art Deco Registry and Map.
Brief History
The Art Deco Society of New York (ADSNY) was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in 1980. Today ADSNY’s mission remains the same: to foster public appreciation and understanding of artistic expression in all aspects of Art Deco.
Art Deco architecture and design played a major force in U.S. cultural history in the twentieth century, with New York at its center. ADSNY’s goal is to draw attention to the merits and significance of the dynamic Art Deco architecture, crafts, and decorative arts of the 1920s and ’30s. It fosters greater understanding of Art Deco’s aesthetic forces through tours, exhibitions, lectures, and community events. Crucial to its mission is preventing any needless destruction of important architecture of the Art Deco period and to help protect and preserve it wherever possible.
In its early years, ADSNY instituted many significant events, including New York’s first Art Deco Weekend in June 1983. In September 1985, New York Art Deco Week celebrated the 60th anniversary of the 1925 Paris Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes – the first time this new, modern style was exhibited on an international stage. Programs included walking tours, lectures, symposia, galas, and an exhibition in the Chrysler Building’s famed Cloud Club. All these events contributed to the important revival of Art Deco aesthetic in the 1980s, which led to New Yorkers’ renewed interest in the progressive and fascinating Deco period. In the 1980s and ‘90s, ADSNY's publication, The Modernist, offered articles exploring the movement’s history and development, as well as and timely reports on events, exhibits, and presentations.
In May 2005, ADSNY hosted the eighth World Congress on Art Deco, which brought together more than 250 Art Deco aficionados from around the world to celebrate the wealth of New York’s magnificent Art Deco heritage. The program included a lecture series, walking tours, Art Deco excursions in and outside Manhattan, receptions, and celebrations at the Western Union Building, the Lenox Lounge, the Empire State Building, and Eugene’s, with a gala in the lobby of the Chrysler Building on the 75th anniversary of the opening of New York’s most cherished Deco icon.
Today, ADSNY continues its founders’ mission through a wide variety of important educational, preservation, and celebratory programs for its ever-increasing membership and supporters. Recognizing the need to reach new generations, in 2013 ADSNY introduced the Jazz Age Order for students and young professionals to learn about, celebrate, and protect New York’s great Deco heritage.
In early 2014, ADSNY introduced a dynamic new website featuring a number of valuable resources, including the New York Art Deco Registry and Map, the first comprehensive listing of Art Deco residential, commercial, and municipal buildings in the five boroughs of New York City. Searchable by neighborhood, architect, building function and more, the Registry and Map is free to anyone interested in learning more about Deco treasures throughout the city or creating their own neighborhood walking tours. It has become the foundation of many ADSNY initiatives including Discovering Deco in …, a series of richly illustrated self-guided walking tours of many New York neighborhoods, also on the website.
Since 2015, ADSNY has offered a free educational program, Documenting Deco, to help K-12 students throughout the city learn about the unique Art Deco architecture and design they encounter each day, and to give them a better understanding of the city’s rich history.
In 2016 ADSNY launched Telling the Art Deco Stories of Our Neighborhoods, a partnership with local community organizations to teach residents about the particular Art Deco architecture, design, and history of their own neighborhoods.
That same year, ADSNY launched the journal Art Deco New York, filled with important articles by experts on Art Deco architecture and design, as well as Jazz Age culture in New York and around the world. All back issues may be downloaded free from the website.
ADSNY honors its preservation roots by gathering support and presenting testimony before the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission when important Art Deco buildings are threatened. ADSNY has played a key role in gaining landmark status for famed Art Deco buildings and public interior spaces, including the Waldorf Astoria hotel. In 2016 ADSNY was awarded the Grassroots Preservation Award by the Historic Districts Council for its efforts to protect the Coney Island Pumping Station.
In 2018 ADSNY created its Destination Deco travel program, which offers curated tours for members to explore interwar architecture and design in other cities. Destinations have included Paris, Havana, Tel Aviv, Miami, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Austin, and San Antonio. In 2019, ADSNY introduced its New York Art Deco Weekends, immersive experiences for visitors and New Yorkers to come together to explore the city’s great Art Deco architecture, design, and Jazz Age culture.
ADSNY has long been recognized for the vital role it plays in the city. It received the 2018 Apple Award for outstanding achievement in support of New York City tourism, culture and preservation from the Guides Association of New York. The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts have awarded it generous grants in support of its programing.
In 2020, to continue offering its members meaningful engagement and activities during the Covid-19 pandemic, ADSNY was one of the city’s first cultural institutions to pivot to online programming. Since then, ADSNY has created its Deco on Demand library of more than 90 engaging, informative videos presented by leading local and global experts, which attracts a worldwide audience.
In 2025, the Centennial of Art Deco, ADSNY continues to carry out its founders’ mission: to preserve and promote New York’s rich Art Deco heritage and celebrate the city’s leading role in the unique aesthetic of the 1920s and ’30s in fine and decorative arts, fashion, entertainment, and preservation of its architectural masterpieces.
Past Presidents: Dennis Abbe, Michael Love, Larry Zim, David Gibson, William T. Weber, Shirley Gaynes, Kathy Hausman
Ask ADSNY
By Mail:
Art Deco Society of New York
P.O. Box 6205
New York, NY 10150-6205
By Phone:
(212) 679–DECO (3326)
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