Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing announces largest-ever philanthropic gift
By
Piotr Orlov
Published Jan 10, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Anne Tan-Detchkov
By
Piotr Orlov
Published Jan 10, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
The holiday giving season may be over, but the Queens Botanical Garden is getting a big present: the largest philanthropic donation in its history.
On Tuesday, the 83 year-old Flushing institution announced an $8 million gift from the Bluestone Foundation. The money will be used to develop and launch environmental education programs for young people in Queens.
In return, the names of Joan and Norman Bluestone, who established the foundation, will adorn a new city-funded building to house those programs, for which the Botanical Garden is expecting to break ground this summer.
Evie Hantzopoulos, the garden's executive director, said a meeting with foundation trustees showed a direct connection between the new building's designated purpose and the Bluestone Foundation's mission of serving students in all Queens communities.
"They firmly believe in the power of education, and making sure that every young person has the opportunity to engage in high-quality programming that is rooted in environmental education and sustainability and the love of nature,” Hantzopoulos told Gothamist.
“Part of what we'll be doing is reaching out to communities in Queens that may not come to the garden,” she continued. “We're going to do some special outreach to the Rockaways and to Jamaica, and really make sure that kids in underserved communities are really immersed in the kind of innovative programming that will really spark their minds and their curiosity on some of the critical issues that we're facing.”
A major gift to the Queens Botanical Garden will serve to fund educational programs in a new building on the park's grounds.
Jess Brey
Key to the gift's establishment was Joan Bluestone’s personal connection to the garden. She had been a long-time volunteer, and served on its board of directors before her death in 2020.
Sara Herbstman, the Bluestones’ niece and current president of the foundation’s board, described Joan and Norman as “quiet people” and “not demonstrative.” In fact, it wasn’t until the gift to the botanical garden was under discussion that members of the Bluestone family discovered Joan had arranged to have a tulip tree planted in Norman’s name, near the garden’s Main Street entrance, after he passed away in 2011.
Joan Bluestone, Herbstman said, directed garden employees not to “make any kind of big deal about it.”
She laughed as she related the story.
“They loved the gardens,” she said. “But all the fanfare and the press releases and press conferences – this is not who they were.”
Norman Bluestone had been a founding member of the Bluestone Organization, a Queens-based real estate company. In 2002, he and Joan established the Bluestone Foundation to assist the education of underprivileged students in the New York area, primarily around Queens.
According to Herbstman, previous gifts went to Queens College, St. John’s University and the Columbia School of Nursing.
But, she added, the money bequeathed to the botanical garden is “certainly the largest gift the foundation has given.”
Tagged
queens
flushing
arts
Piotr Orlov
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
NYC music in October: The Strokes, a Blink-182 cover band, and Polish experimentalism
An excellent and diverse month of concerts are in store for October.
By
Hank Shteamer
Published Oct 2, 2026
Are you a New Yorker? The Department of New Yorker Verification will now decide.
There is now an (un)official verification process for those who can claim the title of city resident.
By
Hannah Frishberg
Arts & Entertainment
Are you a New Yorker? The Department of New Yorker Verification will now decide.
There is now an (un)official verification process for those who can claim the title of city resident.
By
Hannah Frishberg
In the mood for a pastoral autumn experience? Try Queens.
By
Elizabeth Shwe
and
James Ramsay
October is spooky season at the movies in New York City
By
Emma Stefansky
At the Museum at FIT, an argument for dolls as the ultimate fashion influencers
By
Quinn Moreland
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .