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In 2008, the Trust supported the Downtown Alliance’s Third Thursdays lecture series with a grant of $15,000. The lecture series cover a variety of topics on the history of New York, and are held in historic locations throughout the City. In 2008 lectures included a range of topics from the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s first explorations of the New York area, to designing a memorial at the World Trade Center, as well a detailed discussion of Manhattan’s famous landmarks. Venues for the series included the Museum of American Finance, the Broad Street Ballroom, and 7 World Trade Center.

In 2007, the Trust supported Alliance for Downtown New York’s Movie Nights at the Elevated Acre. Movie nights is a popular film series and part of the free cultural programming that makes up the annual River to River Festival. Movie Nights is a vehicle for the Festival to develop crossover audiences for independent and classic film from loyal concertgoer base, attract thousands of artist filmgoers to Lower Manhattan for curated presentation and conversations with filmmakers in a one of a kind setting and create a popular venue for outdoor film in one of New York’s most interesting architectural spaces. Movie Nights was specifically created for the Elevated Acre at 55 Water Street, which is a privately owned public space opened in 2005 following its redesign by Rogers Marvel Architects. The park is 40 feet above street level, and was transformed from a barren, cement expanse into an award winning public space.