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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by June Lei, Public Programs Producer at Brooklyn Museum
4:07:22
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3 min
June Lei, a Public Programs Producer at the Brooklyn Museum and union representative, testifies about the importance of funding for cultural institutions and workers in New York City. She highlights recent layoff threats at the Brooklyn Museum and emphasizes the economic impact of the cultural sector.
- Lei urges the council to increase public funding for arts as an economic engine and policy matter.
- She calls for greater transparency in the use of public funding by the Cultural Institutions Group.
- Lei stresses the need for stable jobs, good benefits, and fair wages for cultural workers.
June Lei
4:07:22
Thank you.
4:07:23
Good afternoon.
4:07:24
First I wanted to give my thanks to Chair Rivera and fellow committee members.
4:07:29
Thank you so much for your service and your leadership.
4:07:32
My name is June Lei and I am a born and raised New Yorker of District 2, a proud public school alum and a full time public programs producer at the Brooklyn Museum where I have worked as an intern, a contractor and a full time staff member since 2015.
4:07:48
For the past three years, I've also served as the secretary of our TC37 Local fifteen oh two.
4:07:53
So I speak to you today as an elected representative of nearly 200 cultural workers at the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Children's Museum, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
4:08:05
At the Brooklyn Museum last month, management attempted to lay off nearly 50 workers to balance a financial deficit of $10,000,000 a deficit that ran through $60,000,000 in ten years despite rising executive salaries.
4:08:20
Thanks to the advocacy of you and your colleagues and our union's collective power, we averted the layoffs this year with a timely grant from the city council.
4:08:28
Thank you truly.
4:08:30
The city's investment in our jobs, our cultural sector, and our creative community means we retain the expertise we need to serve and uplift our communities in Brooklyn.
4:08:41
Our unit at the Brooklyn Museum is made up of 150 workers who are the stewards of our city's culture and history, including curatorial assistants, librarians, art handlers, framers, collection management, exhibitions, and provenance experts, educators that work with a myriad of audiences including youth and elders.
4:09:00
We are cultural and performance producers, engineers, electricians, carpenters, painters, AV technicians, public safety and security guards, administrators, and people who have dedicated decades of their lives to an institution that we hold so dearly.
4:09:17
Our members have parents and even grandparents who worked at the Brooklyn Museum too.
4:09:22
This city, a place of hope and creativity to so many people, is anchored by its cultural institutions.
4:09:29
Gotta keep going.
4:09:30
I speak before you today to ask that we together put art and cultural workers at the forefront of our future.
4:09:36
The city's cultural sector generates $110,000,000,000 of economic activity.
4:09:43
The investment that the city makes in arts institutions is returned at exponential proportion.
4:09:48
As job conditions for art workers grow more precarious, I urge the council to increase public funding to the arts as an economic engine and as an urgent policy matter.
4:09:59
Workers who make between 40 and $80,000 a year deserve strong pensions, good health care, and stable jobs, and we deserve accountability for greater and greater transparency.
4:10:11
New Yorkers know that culture is for us by us and I also ask that the Department of Cultural Affairs make information about the use of public funding by the Cultural Institutions Group available and accessible online.
4:10:24
Thank you for your partnership with workers to make arts and museums a place for creativity, critical thought and learning and a place to have a sustainable career.
4:10:34
Chair Rivera, thank you for your time.