The Museum Association of New York

The state budget, which has been passed in sections over the past three days, contains a $4 million increase in grants funding for the State Council on the Arts.

This is the first increase in four years, and is just a bit under the $4.5 million arts advocates asked for on Arts Advocacy Day in February. See Assembly press release http://assembly.state.ny.us/Press/20120328a/

A budget is a three party agreement.  The Governor, the Assembly and the Senate all have to agree, so please thank everyone.  BY SNAIL MAIL, please.  $4 million is worth a few first class stamps!

Here are the leadership people who must be thanked:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
Executive Chamber
Albany, New York  12224

Speaker Sheldon Silver
LOB 932
Albany, New York  12248

Majority Leader Dean G. Skelos
LOB 909
Albany, New York 12247

Assembly member Margaret M. Markey
Chair, Tourism, Arts & Sports Development Committee
LOB 712
Albany, New York 12248

Senator Elizabeth O’C Little
Chair, Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks & Recreation
LOB 310
Albany, New York 12247

AND, thank the Senator and Assembly representing your district.

NYSCA’s funding for local assistance (grants) stays at last year’s level, $31,635,000, in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed 2012-13 budget.

There are also no cuts in jobs or programs at the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. In fact, the parks department would get $94 million to “address the large backlog of capital rehabilitation and improvement needs in 48 state parks and historic sites and facilities operated by the Olympic Regional Development Authority.” Total capital spending for parks would be $110 million more than the parks got for improvements this year.

The Environmental Protection Fund also would be unchanged, at $134 million. The fund pays for historic preservation projects, as well as open space programs.  Parks would be down just 12 jobs, to 1,736, reflecting attrition and the ongoing hiring freeze. Funding to run the parks would dip slightly, about 2.5 percent, to $211.3 million.

Within the Environmental Protection Fund is $9M for the Zoos, Botanical Gardens and Aquariums Program.  This program provides critical general operating support, which is not available to living collections institutions through NYSCA.

The governor’s budget calls for $3.815 million for Matching Funds (on an aid to localities line) and $2.5 million for the I Love NY marketing program for a total of $6.315 million.

This week arts advocates from across the state will be in Albany to press the case for public funding for the arts and humanities.  MANY will be circulating its advocacy agenda to members of the tourism/arts committees in the Senate and Assembly (see below).

You can do your part by raising your voice with your state legislators in support of MANY’s advocacy agenda.  The agenda is part of a larger advocacy white paper, Living on the Knife’s Edge: The Status of New York State’s Museums in 2012.

For information about how your museum or heritage organization can advocate, see this FAQ.

NYS Senate Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee
Betty Little, Chair

Eric Adams (D- Kings)Greg Ball (R-Dutchess, Putnam, Westchester)
John J. Bonacic  (R-Delaware, Orange, Sullivan, Ulster)
Thomas K. Duane  (D-New York)
Patrick M. Gallivan  (R-Erie, Livingston, Ontario, Wyoming)
Joseph A. Griffo  (R-Lewis, Oneida, St. Lawrence)
Mark Grisanti  (R-Erie, Niagara)
Timothy M. Kennedy  (D – Erie)
Jeffrey D. Klein  (D-Bronx, Westchester)
Carl L. Marcellino  (R-Nassau, Suffolk)
Patty Ritchie  (R-Jefferson, Oswego, St. Lawrence)
Jose M. Serrano  (D-Bronx, New York)
David J. Valesky  (D- Cayuga, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga)

NYS Assembly Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development
Margaret Markey, Chair

Ken Blankenbush (R-Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego, St. Lawrence)
John Ceretto (R-Niagara)
Christopher Friend (R-Chemung, Schuyler, Tioga)
Dennis Gabryszak (D-Erie)
Aileen Gunther (D-Orange, Sullivan)
Sean Hanna (R-Livingston, Monroe, Ontario)
Guillermo Linares (D-New York)
John McEneny (D-Albany)
Steven McLaughlin (R-Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer)
Dean Murray (R-Suffolk)
Daniel O’Donnell (D-New York)
Dan Quart (R-New York)  
Bob Reilly (D-Albany,Saratoga)
Naomi Rivera (D-Bronx)
Samuel Roberts (D-Onondaga)
Linda Rosenthal (D-New York)
Teresa Sayward (R-Essex, Hamilton, Saratoga, Warren)
Matthew Titone (D-Richmond)

The following priorities comprise MANY’s advocacy agenda for 2012

Preserving the Infrastructure:

• Rebuild the New York State Council on the Arts.  In 1960, New York State was the FIRST in the nation to establish state arts agency.  NYSCA must be sustained as a strong independent entity, and its Museum Program as the primary funder of museums.  The FY2012 executive budget holds NYSCA’s local assistance funding to the FY2011 level of $31.6 million – while this is welcome news, it remains an astounding 58% below its highest point just two decades ago. This decline is unprecedented among state agency local assistance funding.
• Restore the legislative line item of $450,000 to the New York Council for the Humanities.  This funding would provide a renewed, publicized offer of small grants ($3,000-$10,000) to the state’s best public humanities programs in communities from Long Island’s Five Towns to Niagara Falls.  Council funding goes to a wide range of museums and heritage organizations of all sizes and does not overlook smaller institutions in upstate cities and rural areas.
• The Zoos, Botanical Gardens and Aquariums Program received $9 million in FY2011 and has not been reduced in the FY2012 executive budget.   These dollars are a good investment, because they allow organizations with ‘living collections’ to leverage public money against private gifts.  The catalyst of public money is what drives the engine for many museums across New York State.
• Help ensure that SED has a deeper understanding of the museum community it regulates, the challenges it faces, and that it acknowledges the innovation, imagination and success of museum education programs across the state, recognizing that the educational contributions of museums are equal to those of libraries, archives and public broadcasting.

Collaboration and Partnership:

• Create a seat at the economic development table for museums and cultural institutions because they are a driving economic force.  Help museums partner with business executives to find innovative solutions to the challenges of the new economy.
• Uniform highway signage is desperately needed by museums and heritage organizations – indeed all cultural institutions – particularly in smaller communities and rural areas.  Let’s help audiences find these great places!
• Urge government to see museums and heritage organizations like the small businesses that they are.  Yes, they are nonprofits providing communities with important educational and cultural services, but they are also employers facing skyrocketing health care and energy costs.
• Create a fund for cash-strapped museums and historical organizations to buy time for restructuring, thus forestalling the pressure to turn collections into cash.
• Build easy-to-access information about museums and their education programs into State Education Department curriculum standards so that teachers are aware of the programs available to them and are encouraged to use museum resources in classroom instruction.

Innovation and Oversight:

• Appoint a Regent who is a museum professional. Doing so would acknowledge the complexity of museum governance and give an equal voice to a community the Regents charter.
• Help the museum community plan for growth. The Regents grant 20 to 30 provisional charters annually to new museums, but with diminishing resources available and long-established organizations struggling to maintain funding and audience, no organization should enter the field without substantial endowment, making it questionable whether more museums results in better cultural heritage stewardship or education.
• Create a committee that will work with the Attorney General’s office, the bankruptcy courts, Board of Regents, and the Museum Association of New York to address the complex questions surrounding deaccessioning, providing a voice for extraordinary collections imperiled by fiscal crisis, bankruptcy or dissolution.