2016 GANYC Apple Awards

Guides Association of New York City (GANYC) Presents 13 Awards Celebrating Outstanding New York Achievements at  2016 GANYC Apple Awards

Those Who Know New York Best Honor the Best of New York
at Sold-Out, Star-Studded Affair

NEW YORK, Monday, March 7 —  The Guides Association of New York City (GANYC) presented its 2016 GANYC Apple Awards at a sold-out, star-studded ceremony on Monday night March 7 at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space in Manhattan. GANYC honored 13 organizations and people with 2016 Apple Awards for encouraging and promoting New York City tourism, culture and preservation while supporting the work and contributions of professional New York City tourist guides.

 

The event began at 6:30 pm with a glamorous red carpet event and cocktail party. Doors to the theater opened at 7:45, and the ceremony commenced at 8 pm, with comedians Kevin James Doyle and Olivia Petzy returning as masters of ceremony for the second straight year.

 

In December 2015, the GANYC Awards Committee unveiled the 44 nominees (listed below), and the GANYC membership voted on the nominees through mid-January. The votes have been tabulated, and the winners were announced. The big winner of the evening was Jeremiah Moss, who took home two awards. Moss received the Outstanding Achievement in Support of NYC Preservation for the #SaveNYC campaign and the website Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York; that same website won the Outstanding NYC Website award.

 

GANYC also bestowed two legacy awards at the 2016 ceremony:

 

 

Here is the order of the program with a full list of nominees and winners for the 2016 GANYC Apple Awards, along with the distinguished roster of presenters for each category:

“This is New York” Video & Speech

Presented by: Michael Dillinger president of GANYC.

 

“Mayoral Message" from New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio

Presented by: Adrienne Cooper chair of GANYC Apple Awards

Click here for a PDF copy.

 

Outstanding Achievement in Support of New York City -- Culture

Winner: Susan Henshaw Jones, Ronay Menschel Director, Museum of the City of New York (from 2003-2015)

Presenter: Grace Gotham, producer/performer of The Flatiron Follies, columnist for Zelda magazine, and blogger for Tassel to Table

Nominees:

• Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director: Manhattan Theater Club

• David Remnick, Editor: The New Yorker

• Todd Haimes, Artistic Director: Roundabout Theater Company

 

Outstanding Achievement in Support of New York City -- Tourism

Winner: Gregory Wessner, Executive Director, Open House New York

Presenter: Glenn Stoops, portrayer of Statue of Liberty sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi at Liberty Island

Nominees:

• One World Observatory, VP/GM John Urban

• Jerry I. Speyer: Chairman, Tishman Speyer

• Vin Cipolla: President, Municipal Arts Society & Rockwell Group Ventures

 

Outstanding Achievement in Support of New York City -- Preservation

Winner: Jeremiah Moss, Organizer of #SaveNYC, author of Vanishing New York

Presenter: Frances Rosenfeld, curator of Public Programs, Museum of the City of New York

Nominees:

• Simeon Bankoff: Executive Director, Historic Districts Council

• Peg Breen: President, New York Landmarks Conservancy

• Steve Zeitlin: Founding Director, City Lore

 

Outstanding NYC Website

Winner: Vanishing New York, http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com Jeremiah Moss

Presenter: Tom Meyers and Gregory Young, 2015 GANYC Apple Award Winners and founders/producers of "The Bowery Boys" podcast and Website

Nominees:

• Working Harbor Committee: www.workingharbor.org

• Daytonian in Manhattan: daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com

• Manhattan User's Guide: www.manhattanusersguide.com

 

Outstanding Achievement in NYC Photography (singular image, published October 2015-15)

Winner: Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao, Highbridge

Presenter: Meghan Weathersby, executive director of the Art Deco Society of New York, and Don Spiro, publisher of Zelda magazine

Nominees:

• Hiroko Masuike: St. Patrick's Cathedral

• Paul Kessel: Looking at Self, Times Square, True Believers

• Timothy Schenck: New Whitney Museum 2

 

Outstanding Achievement in Radio Program/Podcast (Audio/Spoken Word)

Winner: The Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC 93.9FM

Presenter: Art and Susan Zuckerman, GANYC members and hosts of the Z Travel Radio Show on WVOX 1460 AM

Nominees:

• Cityscape: 90.7 WFUV: George Bodarky

• Our Streets, Our Stories: A Brooklyn Neighborhood Oral History Project: Brooklyn Public Library

• The NYPL Podcast: New York Public Library

 

“Guiding Spirit Award For Lee Gelber”

Presented by: Matthew Baker producer of GANYC Apple Awards

 

Outstanding Achievement in “Fiction” Book Writing (published October 2014-15)

Winner: City on Fire: A Novel, by Garth Risk Hallberg

Presenter: Leanna Renee Hieber, author, "Magic Most Foul" and "The Eterna Files"

Nominees:

• Run You Down: A Novel by Julia Dahl; MacMillan Publishers

• Thirteen Ways of Looking: Fiction by Colum McCann; Penguin Random House Books

• Murder on Amsterdam Avenue: Gaslight Mystery by Victoria Thompson; Berkley Publishing Group

 

Outstanding Achievement in “Non-Fiction” Book Writing (published October 2014-15)

Winner: Saving Place: 50 Years of New York City Landmarks edited by Donald Albrecht and Andrew Dolkart, Iwan Baan photographer

Presenter: Michael Henry Adams, Harlem historian and author of "Style and Grace: African Americans at Home" and "Harlem: Lost and Found"

Nominees:

• Gowanus: Brooklyn's Curious Canal: Joseph Alexiou, Author; NYU Press

• Interior Landmarks: Treasures of New York: Judith Gura and Kate Wood, Authors; Larry Lederman, Photographer, The Monacelli Press

• The Algonquin Round Table New York: A Historical Guide: Kevin G. Fitzpatrick, Author, Lyons Press

 

Outstanding Achievement in Essay/Article/Series Writing (published October 2014-15)

Winner: Grub Street, New York Magazine, Sierra Tishgart, Senior Editor

Presenter: Linda-Tarrant Reid, journalist, author of "Discovering Black America" and "Harlem: From Dutch Suburb to Black Metropolis"

Nominees:

• Building Blocks by David Dunlap, The New York Times

• Off the Menu by Florence Fabricant, The New York Times

• The Price of Nice Nails by Sarah Maslin Nir, The New York Times

 

“In Memorium” honoring those people and institutions NYC lost in the past year.

Presented by: Kristin Singleton GANYC member

 

Outstanding Achievement in NYC Food (focusing on anniversaries and special accomplishments)

Winner: Yonah Schimmel Knishery, Celebrating 125 years

Presenter: Niki Russ Federman, 2015 GANYC Apple Award Winner and fourth-generation owner of the legendary Russ & Daughters Appetizing Store

Nominees:

• Danny Meyer, Union Square Hospitality Group: Hospitality Included Program started November, 2015

• Marcus Samuelsson: Bringing the quality food scene back to Harlem starting with Red Rooster, 2010

• Lou, Salvatore & Marie Di Palo, Di Palo's: Celebrating 90 years on Mott & Grand streets

 

Outstanding Achievement in NYC Museum Exhibitions (October 2014-15)

Winner: Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life; Adriana Zavala, Guest Curator, New York Botanical Garden

Presenter: Emma-Guest Consales, GANYC Board of Directors Member and a Chester Dale Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nominees:

• Saturday Night Live: The Exhibition: Premier Exhibitions Inc.

• China: Through the Looking Glass: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

• One Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series and Other Visions of the Great Movement North: MoMA

 

“LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR MARJORIE ELIOT, JAZZ MUSICIAN & HARLEM CONCERT HOST”

Presented by: Gordon Polatnick proprietor of EZ’s Woodshed Jazz Club and is now the founder, top tour guide, and Big Daddy of Big Apple Jazz Tours.

The ceremony was directed by Amada Anderson. Written by Matthew Baker, Amada Anderson, Olivia Petzy, and Kevin James Doyle. Stage Managed by Katy Moore. Produced by the GANYC Apple Awards Committee: Adrienne Cooper (Chair), Amada Anderson, Matthew Baker, Ibrahima Diallo, Robin Garr, Bob Gelber, Lee Gelber, & Riley Kellogg. The red carpet event featured a pre-show interview hosted by Amada Anderson (chair of Public Relations) and Michael Morganthal, shot by Damon Sugameli. Live GANYC Ustream by Michael Pellagatti aka Pella Libertas, Twitter by Aaron Tabackman & Michael Morganthal, Instagram by Deborah Blau. Programs by Adrienne Cooper. Photography and Videography by Evgeniya Cheridy, Ibrahima Diallo, and Anna Rubanova. Thanks to our event day volunteers, our supportive GANYC Board, our venue Symphony Space, GANYC Members, Volunteers, Presenters, Nominees, Hosts, and Tourism in general for an amazing evening!

Special Thanks to our sponsors: Brooklyn Diner & Cafe Fiorello, Libby Corydon-Apicella, Jared Goldstein, Oliver Grieb, Matt Levy, Pat Mazzucca.

###

Click here for our Press Release as of March 08, 2016.

Click here to see our inaugural GANYC Apple Awards 2015 Ceremony winners.

---

Below is our show as it was Ustreamed live and reuploaded to our YouTube Channel.