Michael Connolly Is Honored

Z Behl, a teaching artist at the Church Street School for Music and Art, reads the inscription on a plaque about to be presented to Michael Connolly at the school's fundraising dinner. Next to Connolly, from left, are Community Board 1 Chair Catherine McVay Hughes, former CB1 chairs Julie Menin and Madelyn Wils, and Church Street director Lisa Ecklund-Flores. The plaque honors Connolly for his "visionary support of the arts." Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Michael Connolly, a longtime Tribeca resident and member of Community Board 1, was honored Wednesday evening by the Church Street School for Music and Art for his years of advocacy on behalf of the school and the arts in Lower Manhattan.

“I honestly don’t believe Church Street School would be here if it weren’t for Michael Connolly,” Lisa Ecklund-Flores, the school’s co-founder and director told a crowd of more than 200 at its annual fundraising dinner held at Tribeca Rooftop.

“Michael has been supporting Church Street school for 15 years personally and facilitating all kinds of introductions that still are so important to us today,” Ecklund-Flores said, noting that Connolly, an attorney, helped pave the way for public funding from the City Council and Borough President’s office that continues to this day. That help, she said, was especially critical after 9/11.

Community Board 1 Chair Catherine McVay Hughes, standing beside her two predecessors, spoke glowingly about Connolly's strong backing for a performing arts center at the World Trade Center site, and on behalf of environmental causes. Julie Menin, now the New York City Film Commissioner, called Connolly “the conscience and the artistic soul of our community” and an ally in a successful effort to release more than $100,000 in public funds for the arts center. Madelyn Wils, now president of the Hudson River Park Trust, appointed Connolly as chair of CB1’s Tribeca Committee. She described him as a “solid, rational reasonable voice to help us grow out of what was the [9/11] tragedy.”

Speaking to the gathering, Connolly recalled that his involvement with the school began when his son Jon, then seven and now 30, began taking piano lessons at the school’s first location, up a flight of stairs in a building on Church Street. (The school, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, moved to 74 Warren St. in 1997.) Lessons at the school, he said, continued until Jon went off to college.

“Church Street is part of our community,” Connolly said. “It’s been with us, stuck with us just as we stuck with it after Sept. 11. The school stayed there, its involvement has increased and we have it here today.”

“I’m happy you’re all here supporting Church Street,” he continued, “and look forward to its future for the children of Lower Manhattan.”