Joanne DelRio elected chair of Save Ellis Island trustees board

Corporate art curator Joanne DelRio has been elected chair of the board of trustees for Save Ellis Island (SEI), the not-for-profit organization working to restore the historic buildings on Ellis Island.

Ms. DelRio has actively supported SEI since 2010, when she curated “Shadow and Memory: Ellis Island’s Unrestored Buildings” at the Morris Museum in Morristown. She has been a trustee since 2012. As corporate art curator for Novartis, she is responsible for the pharmaceutical company’s North American art collection.

“So much of the Ellis Island story remains to be told through the unrestored Public Health Service Hospital” said DelRio. “I’m eager to work closely with SEI President Janis Calella, staff, volunteers and our National Park Service partners to continue our restoration work and make these magnificent structures more accessible to the public.”

SEI is the National Park Service’s non-profit fundraising partner whose mission is to raise the funds and oversee the rehabilitation, restoration and reuse of the 29 unrestored buildings on Ellis Island’s south side. To date, the organization has fully restored the island’s Ferry Building and connecting corridors and is working to complete restoration of a second structure. SEI has also put in place ongoing educational programming attended by thousands of teachers and students and recently opened the south side Hospital Complex for public tours.

More information about Save Ellis Island is available at www.saveellisisland.org.