City Culture Cuts

As Michael Bloomberg announced ways in which New Yorkers could enjoy cheap or free cultural activities in the city, Cultural Affairs Department head Kate Levin testified at a City Council hearing about how the mayor’s budget cutbacks are affecting the department and the cultural groups it supports.

Still waiting to testify is a consortium called the Cultural Institutions Group, representing, well, city-supported groups looking to avoid said cutbacks.

According to C.I.G., they’re suffering twice over, having lost City Council funding in addition to coping with a 2.5 percent cut ordered by the mayor.

They also complain that they bear some expenses which can’t just be cut, like heating and energy bills, and that the 2.5 percent cut is therefore more deeply felt in other areas.

Here are a few items from a chart they prepared outlining how much money some institutions will lose by the end of Fiscal Year 2009:

--American Museum of Natural History: $2,790,746, a 22 percent reduction from the previous fiscal year;

--Carnegie Hall: $271,687, a 33 percent reduction;

--Lincoln Center: $1,035,290, a 42 percent reduction;

--Metropolitan Museum of Art: $1,691,246, a 13 percent reduction;

--Staten Island Children’s Museum: $170,146, a 31 percent reduction.