TESTIMONY
Lisa Alpert, Senior Vice President of Development and Programming at Green-Wood Cemetery, on the Cultural Programs and Services Offered by the Cemetery
4:47:31
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127 sec
Lisa Alpert testifies about the extensive cultural programming and services Green-Wood Cemetery provides to New Yorkers.
- The cemetery is a national historic landmark spanning 478 acres in Brooklyn.
- It serves over 450,000 New Yorkers annually through public programs, school programs, and visits to its landscape.
- Green-Wood offers dance performances, art installations, tours, concerts, programming for Latinx and LGBTQ+ communities, environmental programs, and more.
- Despite its role as a major cultural institution, it has not received discretionary funding from the City Council since 2017.
- Alpert advocates for the Council's support to continue providing free cultural experiences to New Yorkers.
Lisa Alpert
4:47:31
Hello.
4:47:32
My name is Lisa Alpert.
4:47:34
I'm the senior vice president of development and programming at the Greenwood in Brooklyn.
4:47:39
How are you guys doing?
4:47:41
Okay.
4:47:42
Good.
4:47:43
I'm here to advocate for the cultural activities that Greenwood provides to all New Yorkers.
4:47:49
I'm gonna start with the obvious.
4:47:50
Greenwood is a cemetery.
4:47:51
We are a national historic landmark, and we cover a really big piece of land in South broke on 4 seventy eight acres.
4:47:58
That's you can easily see it from the airplane big.
4:48:01
And now, the equally important aspect of Greenwood, we are cultural institution.
4:48:06
We serve over 450,000 New Yorkers through our public programs, our school programs, and the thousands who come to stroll our beautiful landscape through of the year.
4:48:15
In terms of the numbers we serve and the depth of our programming, we are one of the city's major cultural institution.
4:48:22
And yet, We have not received discretionary funding from the city council since 2017.
4:48:28
That's 7 years.
4:48:30
We very much hope that can change this year, simply put We need support from the city council to to help us to continue to serve New Yorkers.
4:48:38
What do we do at this Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn?
4:48:42
I'm I'm so glad you asked.
4:48:44
We do dance performance, art installations, walking tours, trolley tours, artists and residents program.
4:48:49
Concerts in the catacombs, Latinx programming, LGBTQ plus programming, Juneteenth programming, a huge day of the dead.
4:48:56
Sort of an obvious one at a cemetery.
4:48:58
We attract over 1500 attendees, environmental programs, more and more and more.
4:49:04
We are located in South Brooklyn, as I mentioned, and that is an area that that always needs more cultural institutions.
4:49:09
And Greenwood has taken on that role for the residents of Sunset Park, Burrow Park, Kensington, Dentons Park.
4:49:15
Bay Ridge, and more.
4:49:17
And Greenwood is open 7 days a week from dawn to dusk, 365 days a year for free.
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No cost to the public.
4:49:26
So I believe you all are dedicated to expanding opportunities for cultural programming.
4:49:31
We are too.
4:49:32
And we love sharing this incredible place with New Yorkers.
4:49:35
We need the support of the council to do that.
4:49:38
Thanks.
