City ID perks get less artful
SOME OF THE biggest cultural institutions offering free memberships with the city’s municipal ID card have quietly dropped out of the program — including the Guggenheim, the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Others that stopped participating include the New Museum, El Museo del Barrio and the Museum of the Moving Image.
A total of 11 cultural institutions dropped out of the program for the upcoming year, which brings the number of participating groups to 40.
That’s the same number as last year, despite the inclusion of new groups offering free memberships like Museum of Arts and Design, China Institute, the Drawing Center and Symphony Space.
When the city launched the program in 2014, officials touted the addition of the cultural institutions as a way to bring some culture to New Yorkers who might not have the money to afford an annual museum membership.
The ID is available to anyone who lives in the five boroughs, including those who are undocumented immigrants.
The memberships were also a way to encourage all New Yorkers to enroll for a card, not just those without citizenship papers.
A representative for the city confirmed the defections.
“We are incredibly grateful to all of our cultural partners for their service to the program, helping to make it the most successful municipal ID program in the U.S,” said Ryan Max, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Queens), chairman of the Committee on Cultural Affairs, said the program had been a “challenge” for some of the institutions, since so many people signed up.
Others didn’t see much of a bump, so they didn’t see the point of staying on, he said, citing institutions on Staten Island that quit.
The Staten Island Children’s Museum, Staten Island Historical Society and Staten Island Zoo all dropped out for 2017.
A spokesman for the Guggenheim said that the museum “plans to refocus its energy and resources on other programs that are already in place to encourage visitation by our local New York City residents and tourists alike.”
The others did not respond to calls for comment.
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