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Q&A
DCLA's role in helping institutions retain staff during financial downturns
0:41:13
ยท
118 sec
Commissioner Cumbo explains DCLA's role in helping cultural institutions retain staff during financial downturns, focusing on strategic support rather than direct intervention.
- DCLA helps strategize when institutions face challenges, such as facilitating paperwork for reimbursements to reduce interest costs
- The agency connects institutions with potential funding sources, foundations, or corporations
- DCLA provides advice and suggestions but does not directly manage staffing decisions
- The agency has increased funding to the Brooklyn Museum by approximately 27% in recent years
- Commissioner Cumbo emphasizes that the challenges faced by the Brooklyn Museum are part of a larger, systemic issue affecting the cultural sector
Carmen N. De La Rosa
0:41:13
How would you categorize your involvement as an agency when it comes to exploring measures for city funded institutions like the SIGs to retain staff during financial downturns.
0:41:25
So as you mentioned, many other organizations are going through this.
0:41:29
Does the agency play an official role in trying to have, like, those planning conversations with the SIGs to say, you know, if staffing is gonna be impacted, this is some a way that we can help or help them with the planning of their financial
Laurie Cumbo
0:41:43
It's more when something like this happens.
0:41:45
It's more where we would help to strategize in terms of, let's say, an organization has an extensive capital project that they've been undertaking for a number of years.
0:41:56
Mhmm.
0:41:57
And they have seen some challenges internally with reimbursements.
0:42:01
And they're paying heavy interest on waiting for those reimbursements to come in.
0:42:07
We can try to work to say, let's help you facilitate your paperwork.
0:42:12
Let's help you fill out these documents quicker.
0:42:15
Let's help to see if on the agency side, it's hung up or stuck somewhere or something like that, or maybe you haven't filled out everything you were supposed to fill out.
0:42:23
Let's try and do what we can do to get your reimbursement funding into the organization's budget so that they can stop paying heavy interest costs.
0:42:34
We also can do things where we can say, have you met with this foundation?
0:42:38
Have you met with this corporation?
0:42:39
Maybe you all should talk with this organization and see if there's some way that there could be a bridge loan or if there's some way that you can have funding from a foundation that's interested or willing to help and support at this time.
0:42:52
Mhmm.
0:42:52
So it's more of a connecting.
0:42:55
Mhmm.
0:42:55
It's more of have you thought of this?
0:42:57
It's more of that sort of thing.
0:42:59
But, you know, as I stated before in this, our increase to the Brooklyn Museum over these last few years has been approximately in the Adams administration, a 27% increase.
Carmen N. De La Rosa
0:43:11
Mhmm.
Laurie Cumbo
0:43:11
So we have supported at the highest level that we possibly could, but the downturn on so many levels, I suspect we're gonna be in this meeting room quite a bit Mhmm.