Dr. Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel
Throughout her lengthy 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 of our country. She has brought unparalleled involvement to the arts, architecture, design and public policy through roles that have brought her from the writer's desk to The White House, and serves as a model for civic and cultural involvement. As the wife of the U.S. Ambassador to the Slovak Republic, she was a model of engagement in public policy issues, the arts, architecture, and human rights, especially the plight of the Roma.
As the first Director of Cultural Affairs for New York City, she was responsible for bringing the Metropolitan Opera to Central Park and the first outdoor sculpture exhibition to Bryant Park. The first woman to serve as Vice Chair of the US Commission of Fine Arts in its then-109 year history, where she served for more than a decade, she has also served as the Vice Chair (2007-2016), and the Chair and CEO (2016-2018) of the New York State Council on the Arts. Other appointed positions include Commissioner of the American Battle Monuments Commission, a founding director of the Trust for the National Mall and of the High Line [the elevated park in the NYC meatpacking district]. She was appointed to the board of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Commission in Washington, DC. In that role she served as Chair of the Committee that commissioned the original art for all of the spaces in the museum. In 2015, she was named to the Advisory Committee of the National Eisenhower Memorial. Dr. Diamonstein-Spielvogel was appointed to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts by President Biden in March, 2022.
She is the author of 24 books on art, architecture and public policy, and the curator of eight traveling museum exhibits, one of which was circulated by the US Department of State to 82 countries on five continents. Her 23rd book, The Landmarks of New York, (now in its Sixth Edition, 2016), was accompanied by a multi-city traveling museum tour throughout NY State. Her most recent book, to be published by the NY Review of Books is entitled, “beyond architecture: The NEW New York”.
As Chair of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center, she created, had approved and underwrote the distinctive Historic District Street Signs that are installed in 155 Historic Districts in New York City, and was the founder/creator of the Cultural Medallion program.
Her reach extends into other media as well: she was the interviewer/producer for seven television series about the arts, architecture, design, crafts, and public policy for the Arts & Entertainment Network, and many other programs for other national networks, such as CBS and NBC. Many of her television interviews were also shown at the Leo Castelli Gallery, and nearly 200 of her interviews are now available on iTunes U and YouTube, having been digitized by the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Video Archives at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University. The recipient of numerous honors and awards, in addition to her earned doctorate from NYU with highest honors, she is the recipient of four honorary doctorates. In January 2023, she received the Dr. Jan Papanek Medal, the highest U.N. honor given by the government of Slovakia.