Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, Chair

Throughout her career, Dr. Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel has served as a leading voice on some of the defining urban issues of our time, including the preservation of the historic built environment. She serves as a model for civic and cultural engagement, having demonstrated unparalleled commitment to the arts, architecture, design and public policy through roles that have brought her from the writer's desk to The White House, where she created the first and only White House Festival of the Arts in 1965, and helped create the White House Fellows and the Presidential Scholars Program. As the first director of Cultural Affairs for NYC, she was instrumental in bringing the first public art exhibit (an installation of sculptures by Tony Smith, in 1967) to Bryant Park, the first public performance to Central Park by the Metropolitan Opera, and the first week-long festival of films about New York at the Regency Theatre. She remains the longest-serving NYC Landmarks Preservation Commissioner (for 17 years, under four mayoral administrations); and served as the Chair of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Foundation, from 1987 to 1995, where she created and underwrote the placement of Historic District Street Name Signs, descriptive markers, and maps in each of New York City's then-84 Historic Districts, programs that have since become models for similar initiatives throughout the U.S. She was appointed by President Reagan to the Board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she served as Chair of the Subcommittee of the USHMM that commissioned all the museum’s Art for Public Spaces; by President Clinton to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (founded 1910), where she served as the first woman vice chair in its 113-year history; and by President Obama to the American Battle Monuments Commission, where she served as Chair of the New Memorials Committee. In March 2022, she was appointed by President Biden to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts, and in 2023, was appointed by New York State Governor Hochul to the City University of New York’s Board of Trustees.

The recipient of numerous honors and awards, she was a Founding Director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Friends of the High Line, and Trust for the National Mall, and served on the boards of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, PEN America, and the NYC Bicentennial Commission, where she served as Chair and Keynote Speaker; among many other organizations. In 1997, she was appointed to the New York State Archives Public Trust; in 2007, she was appointed to the New York State Council on the Arts; was appointed Vice Chair in 2012; and served as Chair and CEO from 2016 to 2018. Since 2013, she has served as the Chair of NYC Landmarks60 Alliance, a consortium of more than 180 organizations and individuals, originally formed as the NYC Landmarks50 Alliance, to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the NYC landmarks law.

Diamonstein-Spielvogel earned her doctorate with high honors from New York University, and has shared her experience and scholarship through the authorship of numerous articles, symposia, and twenty-four books about art, architecture, photography, crafts, design, and public policy. Her reach extends into other media as well, where she was the interviewer/producer for seven television and video series about the arts, architecture, design, crafts, and public policy for the Arts & Entertainment Network, and many other programs for other national networks, including CBS and NBC. Many of her video interviews were shown at two exhibitions at the Leo Castelli Gallery. More than 350 of her interviews are available on YouTube, having been digitized by the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Video Archives at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University (click here for more information). In addition to her earned doctorate, she is the recipient of four honorary doctorates (where she was the commencement speaker), from The Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore (1990), Longwood University, Virginia (1996), Pratt Institute, Brooklyn (2011), and Purchase College, SUNY (2017).