FOR THE FOURTH YEAR IN A
row, the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership is reaching out to the local community with a sponsorship campaign designed to help area businesses and property owners promote their own brands while implementing neighborhood-improvement programs that enhance the quality of life for everyone who works, lives or visits here.

The Partnership has just issued its 2010 Sponsorship Program Catalog, a comprehensive roundup of the various ways businesses may participate, giving their companies brand recognition and logo placement that will be seen throughout the Flatiron district as well as many venues throughout the City. Sponsors will be able to place their logos on items such as streetlamps, trash receptacles and ash urns, maps and neighborhood guides.

"Over the past three years, the sponsorship program has been a great success thanks to our supporters," said Jennifer Brown, the BID's Executive Director. "The 2010 program looks to be even better."

Highlights of the 2010 program:

• In recognition of the current economic climate, prices for most items in the Catalog have either remained the same as in 2009 or are lower. Current banner sponsors who renew by April 1 will receive a 5 percent discount. The popular BID banners, designed by Pentagram, are changed periodically. New placements for a full year begin June 1.
• Sponsorship Packages have been augmented by additional items, making them an even better value. A 5 percent discount for any package ordered by April 1 will be available to anyone who participated in the 2009 sponsorship campaign.
• Additional sponsorship opportunities for 2010 include the opportunity for businesses to place logos on specially designed rack cards that are distributed to hotels, visitors' centers, offices, schools and residential buildings to promote the BID's free weekly Walking Tours.
• Also new is a "Greening the District" initiative allowing for sponsorship of the elements that beautify Flatiron: hanging flower baskets, tree-pit guards and plantings, and seasonal plantings on the Public Plazas.

Sponsorships are also available for special events under the Partnership's "Intersections" umbrella, a BID series that focuses on information, ideas and the community. Those events include the Speaker Series, Small Business Forums and various art and cultural programs produced by the Partnership. Businesses near the district, but outside its defined boundaries, may become Friends of the Flatiron Partnership by taking part in an affiliate program that provides access to the BID's communications, collateral and constituents.

For additional information, including pricing, please see the 2010 Sponsorship Program Catalog. You may also contact Eric Zaretsky, Director of Marketing, at (212) 741-2323 or via e-mail at ezaretsky@flatironbid.org.

THE FLATIRON PARTNERSHIP
has begun distributing "info packs" to street-level businesses and property owners throughout the district with information on everything from important telephone numbers to sanitation regulations. The free packets are available to all BID members upon request.

In addition to "Sanitation Regulations At-a-Glance," a pocket-sized card to help businesses and property owners comply with local requirements, the packets contain a magnet listing key telephone numbers and contact information for various City agencies and other vital entities; a card with details about services for those in need; various ways of connecting with the Flatiron Partnership to learn the latest about news and events in and around the district; information on how businesses may submit special offers and sales for posting on the BID's District Deals website page; and a window decal by which businesses may inform customers and passersby that they are proud members of the Flatiron community.

For more information or to request packets, please contact Eric Zaretsky, Director of Marketing, at ezaretsky@flatironbid.org.

SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS AND representatives of other new-economy businesses came together on March 1 to learn about a reduced interest-rate loan program for producers "of anything from cogs to code."

The event was organized by the Flatiron Partnership as part of its "Intersections" community events programming. It was held at Tekserve, the Apple specialist at 119 West 23rd Street, where attendees were introduced to NIMBLE, an innovative program that will permit producers of "intangibles" -- new-economy companies such as new-media organizations, software developers and biotech firms -- to reduce their borrowing rates on loans for equipment and real estate. NIMBLE is offered through the City's Capital Resource Corporation (CRC).

The program was outlined by Maureen Babis, Senior Vice President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and Executive Director of the City's Industrial Development Agency.

Babis's talk followed a brief presentation by Janelle Nicol and Mike Swedene of Tekserve's Business Solutions Group, which offers a suite of services that support small businesses. Birch Coffee provided complimentary coffee and desserts.

For additional information about NIMBLE, call CRC/NYCEDC at (212) 312-3794 or click here.

WITH TAX TIME CREEPING
closer, New York City residents who need help preparing their 2009 federal and New York State returns can find it at Baruch College.

Baruch students will be on hand through April 15 to help prepare tax returns on a walk-in basis, first-come first-served, at no cost. All volunteer students are certified by the Internal Revenue Service as tax preparers as part of the college's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA). The volunteers are qualified to complete federal forms 1040, 1040A and 1040EZ and New York City and State forms IT 150 and IT 201 as well as all accompanying schedules.

They can be found in the Atrium of Baruch's Library and Technology Building, 151 East 25th Street, on Tuesdays through Thursdays from noon to 8 p.m.; on Fridays from noon to 7 p.m.; and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Additional information is available by e-mailing BaruchVITA@gmail.com.

IN 2007, BRITISH SCULPTOR ANTONY GORMLEY STARTLED
London with a public art project entitled "Event Horizons." It consisted of 31 life-size nude sculptures of himself installed on bridges, rooftops and streets along the bank of the Thames. From March 26 through August 15, Gormley's statues will be on display throughout the Flatiron district, three of them at street level in and around Madison Square Park; one on the public plaza at the intersection of 23rd Street, Fifth Avenue and Broadway; and 27 on rooftops and parapets. The sculptures, made of cast iron and fiberglass, will appear on some of the district's best-known buildings, including the Flatiron Building, the New York Life Building, the Met Life Clock Tower, Eleven Madison Avenue and 200 Fifth Avenue. One will be as far north as the Empire State Building, another as far south as 853 Broadway, at 14th Street.

Gormley is an internationally celebrated artist who was born in London in 1950. This will be his first public art project in the United States. It is being presented by the Madison Square Park Conservancy, which is partnering with NYC & Co. to promote the exhibition. The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership is a supporter. Some 280,000 official guides, including maps and information about historical and cultural areas of interest in the Flatiron district, will be produced and distributed by Time Out New York magazine.

For more information, click here.

A monthly roundup of exhibits and events at the art galleries and museums within the Flatiron district. To be considered for inclusion, please send relevant information to: Eric Zaretsky, Director of Marketing, at ezaretsky@flatironbid.org.

Raandesk Gallery of Art

"Behind the Curtain," new paintings by Jason Bryant and Kevin Cyr. Ten large-scale paintings include Bryant's photorealistic depictions of celebrity archetypes set alongside Cyr's portraits of old and distressed cars, trucks and vans.

Dates: Through March 12, although a closing reception is scheduled on Saturday, March 6, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Address: 16 West 23rd Street, 4th floor (In Good Company).
Hours: Weekdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., weekends by appointment.

The Mishkin Gallery at Baruch College

"Ansel Adams Masterworks," 47 photographs from a group Adams felt was an overview of his best work.

Dates: Through March 9.
Address: 135 East 22nd Street.
Hours: Mondays through Fridays, noon to 5 p.m., and until 7 p.m. on Thursdays.

For more information about the Mishkin Gallery, click here.

Museum of Sex

"Rubbers: The Life, History & Struggle of the Condom," a multi-media look at how the condom has influenced everything from science to religion while becoming a symbol of promiscuity to some, responsibility to others.

Dates: Through next six months.
Address: 233 Fifth Avenue.
Hours: Sundays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

For more information about the Museum of Sex, click here.

TAKING YOUR SWEETHEART TO A MUSEUM ON VALENTINE'S DAY might not be everyone's idea of a hot date, but that doesn't apply when the destination is the Museum of Sex. The holiday is so big for MoSex, as it calls itself, that last month the museum extended its hours for the entire Valentine's Day weekend and the first thing visitors saw was a newly designed, brightly lighted and greatly expanded museum store.

After almost eight years, the Museum of Sex is no longer bashful.

Since October 2002, when MoSex opened at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 27th Street, the store had been hidden from passersby and access to the museum was through a discreet doorway on 27th Street. Now, however, the entrance -- plate glass doors with prominent chromium handles that form an X -- is right on Fifth Avenue, flanked by wide windows that allow for more than a peek inside. Visitors must go through the store, now double in size to 2,000 square feet, to reach the ticket counters for admission to the exhibits.

Inside the five-story MoSex, there are further signs of renovation. Just behind the store, a redesigned Film Gallery chronicles sex in movies, from the celluloid of 1920s stag films to today's pixel-packing peccadilloes. The second floor houses the current exhibition, "Rubbers: The Life, History & Struggle of the Condom," plus selections from the museum's permanent collection. Museum offices are on the third floor, where additional construction could mean another gallery. A library, open by appointment only to scholars and researchers, is on four, while the fifth floor is rented as office space.

The museum is also expanding its branding efforts. Inside the store, and available online, are MoSex candles, intimacy kits, T-shirts, mugs, key chains and the museum's very own "aphrodisiac chocolates."

When MoSex was launched by entrepreneur Daniel Gluck, its executive director, it professed a lofty goal: "the exploration of the history, evolution and cultural significance of human sexuality." Despite that, it was denied a charter from the State Board of Regents as a cultural nonprofit organization. Hence, MoSex operates as a for-profit corporation, a position with an upside. It need not worry about outside censorship or a dip in public money in times of economic belt-tightening.

Funding, said communications director Jessica Vaccaro, comes primarily from entrance fees, with more from sponsors of individual events. Trojans, for example, sponsors "Rubbers," the museum's 15th special exhibition. "Rubbers" includes artifacts such as unusual packaging designed by Andy Warhol and a 1930s display case crafted by Julius Schmid, a maker of sausage casings who became the millionaire owner of Sheiks and Ramses; art (condom-inspired sculpture, for example); and sections addressing such contentious issues as contraception, AIDS and safe sex, along with relevant cartoons, posters and other ephemera.

With sex and sexuality as its subject, MoSex is obviously not for everyone and no one under 18 is admitted. The galleries are graphic, displaying paraphernalia invented not only to enhance pleasure but also to inhibit it -- chastity belts, for example, for her and him; erotic drawings and photographs; dolls and robots at play; a section entitled "Kink and Fetish"; and sex toys made of precious metals.

As for anyone who wants the flavor of a more conventional museum, a Picasso etching is also on display. Definitely X-rated, but assuredly Picasso.

(The Museum of Sex, 233 Fifth Avenue, at 27th Street; Phone: (212) 689-6337; Hours: Sundays through Fridays, from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; E-mail: info@museumofsex.com; Website: www.museumofsex.com)

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The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership Business Improvement District, formed in 2006, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to enhance the area's reputation as one of New York's most vital and exciting neighborhoods. This is undertaken by maintaining a clean and safe environment for those who live, work and visit the area; by spearheading area improvement projects; and by marketing the diverse business and retail options in this vibrant and historic neighborhood.

For more information go to our Web site at www.discoverflatiron.org or e-mail us at info@flatironbid.org.

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