The Metropolitan Museum of Art, or ‘the Met’, represents permanent collections of over two million works divided among seventeen department curators. Since the museum’s debut in 1872, they’ve supported a variety of cultural artists. But the historic museum has its own support system. It gains support from a board of corporations and one of the more influential groups is The Real Estate Council
The Real Estate Council promotes the actual real estate industry’s representation in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. With special attention on the Museum’s educational programs, the Real Estate Council has shown to be beneficial for the organization and the growth of their educational movement that is now offered to millions of visitors each year. This council is a part of a supporting class that helps promote the positive initiatives of the Museum.
The Real Estate Council was founded in 1981 by a group of notable real estate industry leaders here in the New York City area. Frederick P. Rose, Charles B. Benenson, Burton P. Resnick, and Lewis Rudin are the founders of the Real Estate Council and support the Met Museum’s educational programs through the real-estate, construction, and architectural industry.
Made of almost 50 members and growing, the Real Estate Council is comprised prominent members of the real estate community, including structural developers, construction groups, architects, brokers, lawyers and bankers.
The Real Estate Council has built its own programs under its umbrella that also help the Museum’s educational goal. The council established the Real Estate Council Benefit in 1996, which acts as a fundraising gala for the Met Museum. The Council Benefit also honored a prominent real estate industry executives and promotes the continued support of the museum.
The support from the Council and the Benefit is put towards broader educational efforts that reach a wide range of audiences. The Museum funds educational programs like school tours, teacher training, scholarly symposia, lectures, and family programs. The Real Estate Council has been influential in growing the audience of this movement and now the Museum’s educational initiatives include over 700,000 participants.
The council has been effective collectively in supporting the Museum but council members have also been major advocates as well. Raising awareness for the Museum and their efforts both as a group and individually has been more than beneficial. The Real Estate Council hopes to continue raising awareness around the Museum’s organization and bring support to help grow their educational efforts.