Brooklyn Children's Museum Will Expand Footprint Using New City Funds

By Kings County Politics News Service

BROOKLYN, NY — Christmas has come early for 21 of Brooklyn’s leading arts and cultural institutions, thanks to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.

Monday at Bed-Stuy’s Billie Holiday Theatre, Adams unveiled his $7.9 million capital budget for arts and cultural institutions in Fiscal Year 2017 — with the biggest stocking load of cash going to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum at 145 Brooklyn Ave. in Crown Heights.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in Fort Greene and the Brooklyn Museum in Prospect Heights tied for second and third.

“Brooklyn is home to everyone from everywhere, and our arts scene reflects that,” Adams said. “Our popularity comes from being a melting pot of so many diverse forms of expression, and that generates millions of dollars for our borough. Our first-class cultural institutions genuinely care about the people of this borough and the people of this city. They have brought a new signature to arts and culture and made it applicable to today’s life. Now more than ever, as people adjust to the national climate, they are going to need these outlets. We need to figure out how to use these cultural spaces as safe spaces where people can express themselves on both sides of an issue.”

The biggest allocation of the day went to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, which is getting $1.341 million to construct a new retaining wall that will allow programming to expand into currently inaccessible parts of the space. (In Fiscal Year 16, in comparison, Adams contributed $337,000 to this project.)

“This grant puts the museum on a path to building a 10,000-square-foot space for art and science education in a beautiful, natural setting," Stephanie Wilchfort, president of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, said Monday. "We are proud that Brooklyn supports cultural institutions in their work with children and families."

Another hefty check doled out in Crown Heights: $500,000 toward new "wet labs" and classroom space for the Brooklyn Center for Sustainable Gardening at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

The Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant History, for its part, was given $250,000 to fund the preservation of the historic Hunterfly Road Houses. (Dating back to the 1830s, when the first free African-American community took root in Brooklyn, these landmarked structures are part of the Weeksville Heritage Center.)

Both BAM and the Brooklyn Museum received $1 million allocations.

BAM’s allocation is going towards the Fulton Street Redevelopment Project, which will update the Harvey Theater and incorporate two adjacent properties; the Theatre for a New Audience, for new offices and studio space; the Mark Morris Dance Group, for the re-cladding of their center’s deteriorating façade; and to BRIC House, for upgrades to the theatrical lighting system in their main theater.

The Brooklyn Museum's $1 million will go toward construction improvements throughout the museum, in order to address problems currently threatening the museum's ability to protect its collections and maintain climate control. (Last year, Adams allocated $1 million toward renovations to the museum's Education Division.)

Below is a full list of the arts and cultural institutions that received capital funding, and what they'll use it for.

• Brooklyn Public Library: $500,000 for "Techmobile Design and Outfitting"
• New York Aquarium: $500,000 for "Sea Cliffs Renovation"
• Brooklyn Museum: $1,000,000 for "Building Envelope Project"
• Brooklyn Botanic Garden: $500,000 for "Sustainable Gardening Center"
• Brooklyn Children’s Museum: $1,341,000 for "Retaining Wall Construction"
• Brooklyn Academy of Music: $1,000,000 for "Fulton Street Redevelopment Project"
• Brooklyn Public Library: $500,000 for "Techmobile Design and Outfitting"
• Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation: $200,000 for "Billie Holiday Theatre Renovations"
• Brooklyn Historical Society: $250,000 for "HVAC Replacement"
• Dancewave, Inc.: $250,000 for "New Dancewave Center"
• STREB: $500,000 for "STREB Lab for Action Mechanics Renovations"
• Mark Morris Dance Group: $482,000 for "Expansion of Dance Center and Renovation of Façade"
• Theatre for a New Audience: $500,000 for "Outfitting of Offices and Studio Space"
• Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant History: $250,000 for "Preservation of Historic Hunterfly Road Houses"
• International Studio and Curatorial Program: $47,000 for "Computer System"
• Rooftop Films, Inc.: $45,000 for "Cargo Van"
• National Sawdust: $35,000 for "Livestreaming Project Installation"
• Spoke the Hub Dancing, Inc.: $50,000 for "Retractable Seating for Gowanus Arts"
• Green-Wood Historic Fund: $277,000 for "Initial Outfitting of Weir Greenhouse"
• Brooklyn Conservatory of Music: $144,000 for "Steinway Pianos"
• BRIC House: $35,000 for "Theatrical Lighting Upgrades"

A version of this story originally appeared on the Kings County Politics news site