Gillibrand says president’s plan to eliminate arts funding would have a devastating cultural and economic impact.
GLENS FALLS, N.Y. >> President Trump’s plan to eliminate arts funding would have a devastating cultural and economic impact on cities and towns across New York, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said Friday.
New York’s junior senator visited the World Awareness Children’s Museum, which collaborates with many similar facilities throughout the area including the Children’s Museum at Saratoga and the National Museumof Dance in Saratoga Springs.
Trump’s budget proposal includes no money for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, which fund Public Broadcast Service educational programs. The cuts would hurt all age groups, from children to veterans, who benefit from arts programs that help them transition back into civilian life, Gillibrand said.
“It harms every part of our state,” she said. “There isn’t a community that doesn’t benefit from museums, arts and the humanities.”
The World Awareness Children’s Museum, founded 35 years ago by Jacquiline Touba of Glens Falls, promotes cultural understanding with a variety of projects, exhibits and hands- on experiences. Its outreach program alone reaches more than 2,000 children per year.
“Imagine how much less hate we would have in the country right now if more cities had museums like this,” Gillibrand said.
Touba said federal dollars helped save and refurbish the Warren Street building that houses the museum.
“It’s really important, es- pecially for rural communities where it’s hard to raise money,” Touba said.
Touba, a sociologist, previously taught at Tehran University and the University of Delaware and her husband, Reza, is from the Middle East. Their daughter and son-in-law, Susan and Michael Wagner, live in Angola, in western Africa.
State Sen. Betty Little, RGlens Falls, said she remembers when Touba founded the World Awareness museum on the third floor of a former YMCA building. The current site is just a couple of blocks from the heart of downtown Glens Falls.
The endowments for the arts and humanities have combined budgets of about $300 million. In 2016, the Endowment for the Arts awarded 538 grants totaling $17 million to New York institutions, and the Endowment for the Humani- ties approved 111 grants totaling $12.6 million, Gillibrand said.
She urged those on hand to contact elected officials urging them to oppose the proposed budget cuts.
“Your voice could make the absolute difference,” she said.