Contact: Colleen Roche (212) 788-2958 or Nydia Negron (212) 788-9364
"I'd like to thank the designers and the Fashion Center BID For Kids for a very practical and creative way of supplying top notch goods to our young and creative New Yorkers in the arts programs of our public schools," Mayor Giuliani said. "Providing children with the practical tools to fuel their imagination and creativity is critical to their future.
"Today's announcement comes on the heels of several initiatives by our City to join with the private sector to reinstate a top quality arts education in our public schools," said the Mayor. "Most notably, Chancellor Crew and I, with the help of the Annenberg Foundation, and in partnership with Commissioner Schuyler Chapin and the Department of Cultural Affairs, are working with extraordinary artistic talents and cultural institutions to reinstate a meaningful arts education curriculum in New York City's public schools.
"Besides helping our children, the Fashion BID for Kids program will also be good for our environment," added the Mayor. "Rather than having designers' excess fabrics, accessories and other materials take up space at a landfill, now children can use these items to express themselves artistically."
Fashion Center Business Improvement District (BID) Executive Director Barbara Randall explained, "Excess fabric, buttons, zippers and other design materials, normally discarded in the manufacturing process, are being collected for distribution in New York City schools as a way to support art education programs. This will be a permanent program which will allow designers, manufacturers and merchandisers in the Fashion Center to make an important contribution to developing the creative talent that our industry is so dependent on. We are also diverting perfectly usable materials from the landfill to the classroom."
"In the fashion industry, our most important natural resource is the creative energy of our young people," noted New York Magazine Fashion Director Jane Hobson Charnin. "We must nurture that talent and encourage them to develop their artistic skills."
The Fashion Center BID is a not-for-profit corporation formed and funded by property owners, commercial tenants and apparel industry leaders to improve the quality of life and economic viability of New York City's garment district.