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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Janice Monger, President & CEO of Staten Island Museum, on Federal Arts and Culture Funding Cuts
2:15:52
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172 sec
Janice Monger, President & CEO of Staten Island Museum, testifies about the severe impact of federal funding cuts on arts and cultural organizations in New York City, particularly focusing on the Staten Island Museum's experience with grant terminations and funding uncertainties.
- The Staten Island Museum had a $300,000 grant from the Save America's Treasures program terminated, with $250,000 remaining.
- Uncertainty surrounds another $250,000 grant from IMLS for Native American artifact stewardship due to federal funding freezes and agency staff layoffs.
- Pending requests to NEH and NEA totaling $500,000 are now in jeopardy due to significant staff reductions at these agencies.
Janice Monger
2:15:52
you.
2:15:52
Greetings, chair Brannan, chair Wesseler, committee members.
2:15:56
Thank you for yielding.
2:15:59
I'm here today to express serious concern over the state of federal arts and culture funding impacting New York City cultural organizations and here in solidarity with my Staten Island nonprofit organizations.
2:16:10
As the CEO of the Staten Island Museum, I wanna share our story to demonstrate the impact of these devastating cuts and changes to federal arts agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
2:16:26
Arts organizations like the Staten Island Museum depend on federal funds to fulfill our mission, serve New Yorkers, and preserve and care for US cultural heritage.
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On a good day, federal funding is difficult to secure and highly competitive.
2:16:39
The federal process requires advanced planning, rigorous applications, and several months wait period before award notification.
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When successful, federal funding enables the museum to undertake collections, processing, and digitizing projects, provide school programs for free, and bring scholarly input into our exhibitions.
2:16:57
In late twenty twenty four, the Staten Island Museum was awarded a three year grant totaling more than $300,000 through the Save America's Treasures program.
2:17:05
As of April 9, '10 '20 '9 PM, we received an email from Keith Sonderling, the acting director at the IMLS, that the grant has been terminated.
2:17:14
There is approximately $250,000 remaining on this grant.
2:17:19
These are congressionally appropriated funds, and this was part of a round of several hundreds of such notifications.
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Staten Island Museum's operating budget is about $2,500,000, so this represents significant grant funding to carry out our mission.
2:17:34
Federal funding freezing and agency staff layoffs that have been referenced earlier, where, you know, all these agency staff have been placed on administrative leave have created uncertainty around another allocated grant of $250,000 through IMLS to facilitate stewardship of Native American artifacts.
2:17:53
Additionally, SIM has pending request to NEH and NEA totaling about $500,000, and some of those notifications were to come as early as this month.
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80% of NEH staff have been laid off.
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The entire, IMLS staff has been put on ninety day administrative leave.
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Federal cultural funding is essential to the success of the Staten Island Museum and so many cultural institutions.
2:18:16
So I know that there are a host of major issues on the table, but you need to understand this is happening in the cultural sector much the same way as as other sectors.
2:18:26
And, I hope that New York City Council members are aware of the tremendous strain that these federal cuts put on the city's cultural organizations.
2:18:34
So thank you to your attention on this matter and so many others and for New York City's investment in the cultural institutions that make New York City great.
2:18:43
We're counting on you.
2:18:44
Thank you very much.