TESTIMONY
Beth Allen, Executive Director of the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance, on the Economic and Cultural Impact of the Arts in Downtown Brooklyn
5:17:58
·
171 sec
Beth Allen advocates for restoring previous fiscal year budget cuts and increasing investment in the upcoming fiscal year for arts and cultural organizations.
- She leads the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance, a network of 60 nonprofit arts groups serving over 5 million people annually.
- The Alliance's members generate an estimated $250 million in annual economic impact.
- Allen highlights the disconnect between communities wanting more arts programming and the financial struggles faced by arts organizations.
- She introduces Arts Month May, featuring over 300 arts activities by Alliance members in Downtown Brooklyn.
Beth Allen
5:17:58
Hi.
5:17:59
Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify today.
5:18:03
My name is Beth Allen.
5:18:04
I'm the executive director of the downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance.
5:18:08
I am here today to join with my colleagues in asking that the council restore the fully restored the at fiscal 24 cuts, and make a total investment of $76,000,000 to the CIGs and CDF in fiscal 25.
5:18:25
5.
5:18:26
The organization I run the downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance is a network of 60 nonprofit arts organizations in the Greater Downtown Brooklyn area.
5:18:37
Our members include every presenting arts organizations situated in the Brooklyn Cultural District, as well as a range of smaller venues, dance and theater companies, small galleries, and others.
5:18:48
And what we do is to foster collaborations with in the field and between non arts community leaders and arts leaders.
5:18:58
Our members collectively serve more than 5,000,000 individuals annually, including approximately a 100,000 school age children who participate in educational programs both at their organizations in schools.
5:19:14
And we it's an estimate here that these 60 organizations generate more than $250,000,000 annually and economic impact.
5:19:27
We're celebrating Arts Month May this year at GBAA, which is a new initiative, where we have actually compiled list of everything that our organizations are doing in May.
5:19:38
It's turned out to be over 300 arts activities that in food everything from big festivals like dance Africa to smaller productions, design week, lots of a huge diversity of offerings that are happening in the Greater Downtown Brooklyn area.
5:20:00
Oh, gosh.
5:20:01
How did I get there?
5:20:03
What I wanna wrap up with is so as part of my job, I talked to a lot of non arts leaders in the community, bid leaders, business leaders, etcetera.
5:20:11
One of the conversations that is consistent right now is the fact that communities want more art, whether it's part of city of yes, whether it's part of other initiatives to increase neighborhood vibrancy.
5:20:25
And that is just a huge disconnect with from what I'm hearing from arts organizations, which are that they're having to make cuts, having to make really hard decisions, we are not talking enough about the the need for the sector to grow.
5:20:41
And I think we should not be talking about cuts this year and we do thank you for your support of of increasing the budget.
5:20:48
Thank you.
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Colby Herschel, Artistic Director and Co-founder of Scantic River Productions, on the organization's contributions to diverse theater and arts programming in NYC
