This year, The Interfaith Center of New York has added a new category to our awards ceremony. We are calling it the James Parks Morton Promise for the Future Award and bestowing it on visionaries who are in the process of bringing their brilliant ideas to fruition for the betterment of humanity. We believe it complements our traditional James Parks Morton Interfaith Award which pays tribute to deserving individuals who have demonstrated a lifelong commitment to peace and harmony. For both types of honorees, they are welcomed into a community of respected and diverse religious and civic leaders who believe interfaith dialogue and shared community actions serve as countervailing forces that diminish religious prejudice and violence in civil society.
We are pleased to bestow the first James Parks Morton Promise for the Future Award on James Venturi, an urban strategist, who has a big idea on how to modernize La Guardia Airport and our transit system. The project is picking up steam with it already featured in the New York Times and blogged about in Gizmodo, an on-line tech publication. We think his encouraging high tech approach in tackling complex urban problems is worthy of attention.
Jim Venturi is an innovator. This skill has assumed the form of technology entrepreneur, documentary filmmaker, and most recently, urban planner. His ReThinkNYC proposal has the promise to change the conversation on the future of New York City. Innovative pieces include expanding LaGuardia into Rikers Island and the Bronx, and the unification of the regional rail network. The goal of this plan is the infrastructural, social and economic unification of the region.
Prior to the launch of ReThinkNYC last August, Venturi has been working on a soon to be released documentary on his parents, the architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. This feature-length film promises to provide an intimate look at these legendary figures in architecture and planning.
Venturi has been greatly influenced by the teachings of last year’s honoree, Sri Swami Satchidananda. Yoga means union and Venturi has taken this definition literally and figuratively with his thinking. Prior to this awakening, Venturi was a technology entrepreneur unifying networks in cyberspace.
Our gala takes place Monday, June 8th at Tribeca Rooftop beginning at 6:30 for cocktails and followed by a three-course dinner. Tickets range in price from $275 for nonprofit/religious organizations to $1,000 for premiere seating and can be purchased here. The net proceeds of the gala support ICNY’s purposeful educational programs, social service projects, and advocacy linking religious communities in meaningful engagement. For more information, kindly contact Ellen Greeley at Ellen@interfaithcenter.org or 212.870.3511.
