TESTIMONY
Lucy Sexton, Executive Director of New Yorkers for Culture and Arts, on the Crisis in New York City's Cultural Sector Due to Budget Cuts
3:56:50
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132 sec
Lucy Sexton testifies that budget cuts have severely impacted New York City's cultural sector, leading to reduced programs, staff, and operating hours for cultural organizations.
- Cultural organizations have been forced to cut benefits to the community, such as dance classes for youth and theater shows
- The cuts have resulted in increased unemployment among cultural workers and less vibrancy and safety in neighborhoods
- Funding delays have forced some organizations to close, and others struggle to run programs for months before receiving funds
- The impact extends beyond organizations, affecting personal wellbeing of participants like seniors in dance classes
- Sexton requests restoration of cuts, additional baseline funding, and investment to stabilize and repair the damaged sector
Lucy Sexton
3:56:50
Thank you for hearing my testimony.
3:56:51
Lucy Sexton, the cultural advocacy coalition, New Yorkers for Culture And Arts, and I like your t shirt.
3:56:57
Council member Brandon.
3:56:58
Thank you.
3:56:59
I want to say first, culture is in crisis.
3:57:01
I know we've been talking about it, but I really want to make it clear that that we are still cutting in staff.
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We're cutting programs.
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We're cutting hours.
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Most importantly, we cut benefits to our community.
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When there are less dance classes, there's less for youth to do after school and increased isolation for struggling teens.
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When there are less shows at the local theater, there's less street traffic to small businesses, less vibrant, less safe streets in our neighborhoods.
3:57:24
When there are less jobs, there's increased unemployment in our cultural workforce and less reason for them to stay in New York City.
3:57:31
We didn't just get cut by DCLA.
3:57:33
We also, as the commissioner was saying, we get funded by many agencies.
3:57:37
That net we got cuts in many agents Right?
3:57:39
We got aycd cuts.
3:57:40
We got DOE cuts.
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We got Department of Aging cuts.
3:57:43
So we we got a lot of cuts this year.
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The dollars we do get are so late that many organizations are forced to close.
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Organizations are struggling to run programs for months and months before their funding arrives.
3:57:54
Capital funding is so bad that organizations then dip into program money and the situation's spirals.
3:58:00
This is not sustainable.
3:58:01
The supasse program is so late this year that seniors will receive only a few weeks of their virtual vital classes.
3:58:07
I've been a supasse teacher in Chinatown where I had a gentleman who in my class cry telling me this was the happiest thing he had been doing in his life was to be in this community, in this dance class.
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Doing theater and dance.
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I had another member during COVID, a student that's told me I was the only person he engaged with in the course of a week.
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This is not the way we want to serve our city.
3:58:28
We're asking for a restoration of the cuts and in addition to the baseline of 53,000,000 in this year's budget.
3:58:34
Right?
3:58:35
But that is only gets us back to fy23 levels.
3:58:39
So it is in essence a cut.
3:58:41
What you have just asked for and which I so thank the council for doing is to also restore the the damaging cuts of this year to start to repair the damage of this year.
3:58:50
So we store the FY 24 quarts for a total input of 76,000,000 investment in our arts and culture to start to repair our damage and start to stabilize the sector.
3:59:01
Thank you so much.
