Audio interview with William Havemeyer, 2016 Sep 14
Scope and Contents
In this audio interview with New School Art Collection curator Silvia Rocciolo and archivist Wendy Scheir, William Havermeyer discusses his forty years as a member of The New School's Board of Trustees. Havemayer reveals how an early engagement with Brooklyn and New York City politics led to him being asked to join the board. He then discusses the development of the board, commenting on how it expanded in both size and scope as The New School changed institutionally. He talks about such pivotal changes as the revitalization of the Graduate Faculty under President Jonathan Fanton and the establishment of Eugene Lang College in the 1980s. Also included is an extensive discussion of The New School Art Collection. Havemeyer reflects on the origins of the school's art collection under Vera List, the negotiations with Mexico over the José Clemente Orozco murals, and the role of art collecting at the university. Haverymeyer also considers his time as the head of Parsons Paris, and the steps he took to make the school financially solvent.
Dates
- 2016 Sep 14
Extent
635 Megabytes (3 Broadcast wave file; 01:01:29 duration; includes PDF transcript)
Participant Biography
William E. Havemeyer has been a member of the Board of Trustees of The New School since 1976. He was also a member of the Parsons School of Design Board of Governors from 1996-2007. In 1995-1996, Havemeyer served as an interim director of Parsons Paris. As vice-chair of the Board of Trustees' Buildings and Grounds Committee, he played a leading role in the $350 million construction project to build the University Center, which opened in January 2014 at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 14th Street in New York City. Havemeyer graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in 1966, and with a master’s degree in Political Science/Public Administration/Public Policy from Columbia University in 1976. He started his career in the non-profit sector and gradually became involved in real estate activities and historic rehabilitation projects. He consulted and led the rehabilitation of the main street and downtown districts of Brooklyn, New York; New Haven, Connecticut; and Savannah, Georgia; and communities in New York State's Westchester, Ulster, and Suffolk Counties.In 1995, Havemeyer was recruited to go to France to serve as the interim director of Parsons School of Design’s Paris program, which was running a deficit. He developed and oversaw legal and financial changes and implemented budgeting procedures and an inter-campus communications system that stabilized the school's financial situation. As president of the management and consulting company, Havemeyer Management Services, Inc. Havemeyer was a consultant to The Skyscraper Museum of New York, among other organizations. For more than four decades, he has served on governing boards of such institutions as the Brooklyn Museum and Union Theological Seminary.