SOUTH STREET SEAPORT — A lifeline may finally be in sight for the struggling Seaport Museum New York.
The Museum of the City of New York is in talks to take over the Seaport Museum and run it as an annex, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
To move the idea forward, the Museum of the City of New York is meeting this Friday with Save Our Seaport, a group of former Seaport Museum employees and volunteers who have been fighting to bring the museum back to life after it laid off most of its staff and closed its galleries in February.
"It would be a tremendous alliance," said Peter Stanford, who founded the Seaport Museum in 1967 and is leading Save Our Seaport.
"If the mayor is resolved to see [the Seaport Museum] rise again, then a very big step toward that would be any kind of marriage of the two institutions."
Stanford said he was heartened that the Museum of the City of New York had agreed to meet with Save Our Seaport — it's the first time anyone with power over the Seaport Museum's future has acknowledged the group's existence.
At Friday's meeting, Stanford plans to offer the Museum of the City of New York any assistance they need in formulating a plan for the Seaport Museum's future. The Save Our Seaport group includes former captains of the museum's historic ships, as well as the volunteers who maintained them and former staff members who ran educational programs there.
Stanford will also advocate for the Seaport Museum to return its focus to the waterfront, engaging the public through the historic vessels rather than pouring money into poorly-attended exhibits.
He also wants to make sure the new leadership is willing to put in the money needed to revive the museum.
"Hopefully they will not start out by cutting [but] by reaffirming and investing in the growth and renewal [of the museum]," Stanford said.
Clive Burrow, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Marketing Association, was also optimistic about a partnership between the two museums, which he heard about recently as well.
"This is a beginning," Burrow said. "It's important that something is being done. Until now, this phenomenal asset…has been ignored."
The Seaport Museum and the Museum of the City of New York did not respond to requests for comment.
The city Department of Cultural Affairs, which is overseeing the negotiations, declined to comment.
