Ed is a keen supporter of NYU’s Program for Medical Education Innovations and Research (PrMEIR) through the Merrin Bedside Teaching Program.

Dr. Lipkin, Dr. Crowe and Mr. Merrin at PrMEIR's annual reception at the NYU Medical Center

From its founding in 2003, there have been several new additions to the teamand, among other generous donors, Ed and Vivian Merrin were honored at PrMEIR’s receiption on June 7th 2011, which was preceded by mention in theFall 2010 edition ofTufts Magazine:

PrMEIR’s faculty development programs have been made possible by the deeply appreciated support of private philanthropists, such as the Merrin and Zabar families. A primary goal of these programs has been to help reverse the nation-wide decline in bedside teaching resulting from technological advances and shorter hospital stays.

The Merrin Bedside Teaching Program was created in 2003 to improve the proficiency and quality of this essential instructional technique within the Division of Greater Internal Medicine. The program’s keystone, the Merrin Master Clinician Fellowship Program, provides selected Internal Medicine faculty with training to become masters of the physical examination and experts in teaching physical diagnosis skills at the bedside.Now starting its fifth annual cycle, the PrMEIR Intramural Grants Program enables faculty to pursue new initiatives in medical education and research. Each year a different theme is chosen for the funded projects, reflecting the current educational needs of NYU School of Medicine. On the theme of patient safety, Critical Care conducted a study using patient simulationlifelike mannequins outfitted with sophisticated computer feedback programsto assess the ability of house staff to prevent cardiac arrest in patients showing early signs of cardiopulmonary instability.

A common theme runs through all of PrMEIR’s projects and initiatives: making sure medical education creates the skilled, compassionate doctors we as patients and as a society want to have. “Our purpose,” concludes Dr. Zabar, “is to educate doctors with the stingiest possible patient-centered communication skillsdoctors who get their parents to tell them their stories fully and clearly, who listen careful and actively to their patients and reinforce their autonomy and decision-making confidence. We to to graduated physicals who are going to be amazing at what they do and change the face of medicine.”

Ed adds that, “PrMEIR takes the right approaches in improving patient care, and is fantastic for letting physicians do what they do best at the NYU Langone Medical Center.” The organization has been running for almost a decade and is always looking for new donors and fellows.

Sparkling white marble was carved into minimalist sculptures of figures predominantly female as well as vessels and other objects in the third millennium BC in the group of Aegean islands called the Cyclades. We now know that the figures were not as deceptively reductive as they appear today, as they wereoriginallypainted, at least with facial features, if not overall.

So, like the sculptures of Greece and Rome that mostly survive in pristine monochrome, Cycladic figures have come to represent an aesthetic in this case, modernism that differs from that of their creation. When such objects were first discovered, in the 19thcentury, it was their starkness that made them reviled. However, it is a happy accident that their streamlined forms seem to prefigure styles of 20thcentury art, as they havecome tobe embraced, appreciated, collected, and preserved as a result.

Some figures retain variations in surface preservation in the outlines of long-gone paint. These barely visible details are called paint ghosts.

Various styles evolved on different islands through time. These styles have been given names such as Speedos variety, Dokathismata variety, Plastiras type, etc. Also, individual artists styles have been discerned and where that occurs, the anonymous artist has been granted a name, usually based on the name pieces modern collectionlocation. Cycladic figurativesculptures range in size from miniature to life-size. The production of the largest figures suggests thatwell-organized and stratified societies.

The most frequent type is a female with arms across the midriff. The b****ts and the pubic triangle the essences of fertility remain visible. Thus, some scholars believe that the figures are representative of a mother-goddess or fertility cult. The feet are rarely in a flat position that would permit the sculptures to stand upright. Rather, the feet are usually pointed. Thus, the likely disposition of the figures was in a reclining position, something that encrustation analysis supports.

What do the figures mean and how were they used? Those questions are still being investigated. But as with all ancient artifacts that are not purely functional or decorative, cult and ritual practice, religious worship, afterlife intercession, or ancestor reverence are all possible rationales for the creation of these magnificent works.

Cycladic art has long been a key favorite in the Merrin Gallery’s collection and, as the New York Times reportedin 1989, Ed Merrin caused quite a stir in the market.

The New York Botanic Gardens is publishing a book on the arrangement of flowers by Edward Merrinwith photos by Ismael Ramirez. It is a book of 250 arrangements, and will be of coffee table size.

This volume will be the start of a series of publications. It will be available in August 2011, to hit book stores for the full run for the Christmas season 2011.

Founder and former owner of New York’s Fifth Avenue Merrin Gallery, Edward Merrin has, together with his wife Vivian, been at the forefront of garden design, flower arrangements, and other nature-inspired pursuits. The Merrin couple are also avid philanthropists, having recently made donations to aid financial programs at Tufts University for students who otherwise would not be able to attend.

Edward Merrin has been involved with various charities, NGOs, and other organizations for his whole life; notably the Infants’ Home of Brooklyn, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJJDC), Childville, and the American Friends of the Israel Museum (AFIM).

Theavailabilityand specific details of the flower arrangement publication will follow shortly. Please watch this space.

As for many, Edward’s destiny began on his honeymoon though, not only through his marriage to Vivian. On their honeymoon in Mexico, Edward discovered pre-Columbian art although he wasn’t the first. (Columbus was.)

At first, Ed used the ancient South American figurines as a display in his family’s jewelry store, but eventually, sometime around the mid-1960′s, his interest in pre-Columbian works developed into The Merrin Gallery, a full-blown ancient art business! Edward’s passion and appreciation for the elegance of pre-Columbian art, led to his status as a true connoisseur of art of this New World.In time, his business came to encompass the ancient art of the Old World ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, as well as the Near East and Europe.

In the present day, there is scarcely a major museum in the US that has not acquired works at the Merrin Gallery (as well as many throughout the world).Private collectors in these fields, as well, have been nurtured.The personal connection between an art dealer and client is a special one.Responding to a client’s interests and passions, the dealer is called upon to find the perfect object to become a part of the client’s life.This exploration often occurred over a long period of time, as the collector was exposed to a myriad of choices, and came to trust Ed Merrin’s taste and expertise.

Wishing everyone a happy New Year. May 2011 bring your dreams to life!

Edward Merrin was included in The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s directory of America’s top contributors and their beneficiaries. It was on account of the New Yorker’s recent gift:

Tufts University (Medford, Mass.) has received a pledge of $30-million from Edward H. Merrin, founder of the Merrin Gallery, an antiquities gallery in New York, and his wife, Vivian, for financial aid. Mr. Merrin graduated from the university in 1950 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and is a former trustee. The couple’s three sons also graduated from Tufts. Before this gift, they donated nearly $9-million to the university.

The philanthropy blog also featured him in another article, though perhaps the best discussion of Edwardand his gift to Tufts comes from The Tufts Daily (the independent student newspaper of Tufts University):

[Edward] Merrin’s gift is part an estate-related plan that will come from his will, making up 20 percent of his estate. It will fund the Merrin-Bacow Scholarship, in honor of University President Lawrence Bacow.

“Larry will be our partner; it’s really being done in his honor because I’ve had such admiration for him,” Merrin told the Daily.

Bacow expressed his appreciation for the Merrins’ gift, noting that it would support a cause that is especially close to his heart.

“I am moved beyond words that Ed and Vivian would make such a gift in my honor,” Bacow said in an e-mail to the Daily. “That they would do so to support financial aid my highest priority as president only makes it that much more meaningful. Countless future students will have the opportunity to study at Tufts because of the Merrins’ generosity. They are the best.”

Merrin explained that the desire to make a meaningful difference motivated the couple’s decision to make this commitment to the university.

“Here is the possibility we have of changing the world,” Merrin said. “Imagine having a child be the first in his family to go to university. It means it impacts not only him, but his children, his children’s children, and in that way change the world. That appealed to us This will put a substantial amount of money in the endowment, and that would be able to pay for a considerable number of students.”

Merrin added that he and his wife decided that the time was appropriate to make this donation because of rather than in spite of the difficult economic climate.

“When the recession started, my wife said to me, Now that money is tough to get, now is when we ought to step up to the plate,’” he said. “I agree with her, and we had the money, and now was the time. When things are good it makes it very easy to give. Now it’s tougher to give and we thought this is what we ought to do.”

This $30 million gift is only the most recent of the Merrins’ contributions to Tufts.

“He’s been a long-time supporter of Tufts, and he’s been very active in fundraising around his past reunion years,” Director of Advancement Communications and Donor Relations Christine Sanni said.

Merrin has been involved in all four of Tufts’ previous capital campaigns, beginning in 1979. The Merrins in conjunction with Edward’s 55th reunion gave $3 million to endow the Seth Merrin Chair in the Humanities in the School of Arts and Sciences (A&S), currently held by Professor of Philosophy Ray Jackendoff, a noted linguist and co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies. They have given a total of nearly $9 million to Tufts over the years.

Beyond his financial contributions, Merrin has also lent his efforts to support Tufts’ cause, serving as an overseer for the School of A&S and a member of the Board of Trustees.

Explaining his continued involvement with Tufts, Merrin who credits the school for his personal and professional success noted that Tufts has meant a lot to him.

“This is my 60th class reunion, I’ve been on the Board of [Trustees], I’m now a trustee emeritus, I’ve had three children who went to Tufts, I’ve had two grandchildren go to Tufts it’s always meant an awful lot to me,” he said.

“Still my best friends are my best friends from college I’ve kept very close with [University Professor Sol Gittleman], I’ve been close to all the presidents, it’s just part of my life really,” Merrin said. “It’s my 60 years reunion, so that’s 64 years involved with the university; that’s a long time.”

Sanni noted that this most recent contribution was hugely beneficial to the Beyond Boundaries campaign. “It’s a pretty significant gift, one of the most significant of the campaign,” she said.

Merrin is the founder of TheMerrin Gallery, Fifth Avenuery, New York.