The state legislature has officially passed the bills requiring a comprehensive study of access rights at our cultural institutions. I am grateful to everyone who helped bring this long-standing oversight issue to the attention of our elected officials. We will monitor the implementation phase to ensure a transparent accounting of …
June 5, 2023
Support Our Bills for a study on NYers' rights to free admission to city institutions
Final supporters
This New Yorker participation petition seeks your support for study Bills #A03059/#S5265.
New York City residents have the right, written in State and local laws and contracts, of free access to and instruction from 17 cultural institutions existing on New York City parkland. These rights were provided for in a mid-1800’s public-private partnership arrangement in exchange for the institutions’ right to rent-free use of publicly-owned park land and buildings.
Today, New York City leaders provide more than $1 BILLION annually in New York taxpayer subsidies to the park institutions while New Yorkers are required to pay a stated or pay-what-you-wish fee.
For more than 150 years, and until the work of the Free Admission [FA] campaign [www.nyersfreeadmission.org], no oversight entity ensured that the provisions of each institution’s incorporating laws and contracts were followed. Bills #A03059/ #S5265 are first-of-their-kind legislation to obtain, analyze and make recommendations regarding the oversight of the park institutions and New Yorkers’ free rights to them.
Bills #A03059/#S5265 request a comprehensive study on increasing public access to the institutions including dollar benefits, directly from taxpayer dollars and city and state agencies’ budgets, and indirectly from the value of any form of free rent and the provisions of controlling laws and contracts pertaining to each park institution’s obligation to provide New Yorkers’ free rights.
Along with your signature on FA’s PETITION, urge your friends and family to sign as well. FA would like to demonstrate to the State Assembly and Senate that today’s New Yorkers – as custodians of a perpetually funded cultural legacy – appreciate their effort on our behalf.
The 17 institutions are:
- American Museum of Natural History
- Brooklyn Academy of Music
- Brooklyn Botanic Garden
- Brooklyn Children’s Museum
- Brooklyn Museum
- Bronx Zoo
- Central Park Zoo
- Museum of the City of New York
- New York Aquarium
- New York Botanical Garden
- New York Hall of Science
- Prospect Park Zoo
- Queens [Flushing Meadows Park] Zoos
- Staten Island Museum
- Staten Island Zoo
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Wave Hill
For more information regarding New Yorkers’ “free” rights, visit nyersfreeadmission.org or send your questions and comments about FA’s campaign to [email protected].
Updates
Reached 1,000 supporters
April 29, 2023
April 28, 2023
The signature count is nearing one thousand. Reaching this threshold will significantly bolster our case when we present these findings to legislators. Please forward this petition to your local networks to ensure we cross this milestone before the upcoming legislative deliberations.
March 22, 2023
The petition has now reached one hundred signatures. This level of interest demonstrates that our community values transparency regarding the oversight of these cultural institutions.
Reached 100 supporters
March 20, 2023
603 Comments
The public-private partnership provides free rent to the park institutions in exchange for free access and instruction to New Yorkers. City leaders are granting $1 Billion in subsidies so New Yorkers should be provided free access and instruction. We are not.
I am a Senior citizen on a very limited budget who loves museums, zoos, aquariums, galleries, concerts and Broadway shows but definitely cannot afford due to the state of the economy and income. Free would be awesome for so many!
The laws are from a 150 years and later, so the public to benefit from free admission and instruction were residents ...without segregating by age... and schools. So seniors are a cohort to benefit from the free rights according to the laws and complying contracts.
For 150 years, New Yorkers have not been properly informed of our rights to free access and instruction to the 17 park institutions. The study bills will reduce the terms of our rights to writing with a call for a written report within one year of passage.
Pay what you wish is not a provision of New Yorkers' free access. The policy was introduced by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1971, and the other institutions followed suit, in many instances disavowing NYS law requiring free admission to New Yorkers.
We deserve this, this is the bare minimum nyc can offer to its residents
Free
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The state legislature has officially passed the bills requiring a comprehensive study of access rights at our cultural institutions. I am grateful to everyone who helped bring this long-standing oversight issue to the attention of our elected officials. We will monitor the implementation phase to ensure a transparent accounting of …
June 5, 2023
Support Our Bills for a study on NYers' rights to free admission to city institutions
Final supporters
This New Yorker participation petition seeks your support for study Bills #A03059/#S5265.
New York City residents have the right, written in State and local laws and contracts, of free access to and instruction from 17 cultural institutions existing on New York City parkland. These rights were provided for in a mid-1800’s public-private partnership arrangement in exchange for the institutions’ right to rent-free use of publicly-owned park land and buildings.
Today, New York City leaders provide more than $1 BILLION annually in New York taxpayer subsidies to the park institutions while New Yorkers are required to pay a stated or pay-what-you-wish fee.
For more than 150 years, and until the work of the Free Admission [FA] campaign [www.nyersfreeadmission.org], no oversight entity ensured that the provisions of each institution’s incorporating laws and contracts were followed. Bills #A03059/ #S5265 are first-of-their-kind legislation to obtain, analyze and make recommendations regarding the oversight of the park institutions and New Yorkers’ free rights to them.
Bills #A03059/#S5265 request a comprehensive study on increasing public access to the institutions including dollar benefits, directly from taxpayer dollars and city and state agencies’ budgets, and indirectly from the value of any form of free rent and the provisions of controlling laws and contracts pertaining to each park institution’s obligation to provide New Yorkers’ free rights.
Along with your signature on FA’s PETITION, urge your friends and family to sign as well. FA would like to demonstrate to the State Assembly and Senate that today’s New Yorkers – as custodians of a perpetually funded cultural legacy – appreciate their effort on our behalf.
The 17 institutions are:
- American Museum of Natural History
- Brooklyn Academy of Music
- Brooklyn Botanic Garden
- Brooklyn Children’s Museum
- Brooklyn Museum
- Bronx Zoo
- Central Park Zoo
- Museum of the City of New York
- New York Aquarium
- New York Botanical Garden
- New York Hall of Science
- Prospect Park Zoo
- Queens [Flushing Meadows Park] Zoos
- Staten Island Museum
- Staten Island Zoo
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Wave Hill
For more information regarding New Yorkers’ “free” rights, visit nyersfreeadmission.org or send your questions and comments about FA’s campaign to [email protected].
Updates
Reached 1,000 supporters
April 29, 2023
April 28, 2023
The signature count is nearing one thousand. Reaching this threshold will significantly bolster our case when we present these findings to legislators. Please forward this petition to your local networks to ensure we cross this milestone before the upcoming legislative deliberations.
March 22, 2023
The petition has now reached one hundred signatures. This level of interest demonstrates that our community values transparency regarding the oversight of these cultural institutions.
Reached 100 supporters
March 20, 2023
603 Comments
Only thru the passage if, and the work of, the study bills will New Yorkers' facts be uncovered, codified and published especially as New Yorkers' subsidize these park institutions with $1 Billion annually while being required to pay an admission fee.
The public-private partnership provides free rent to the park institutions in exchange for free access and instruction to New Yorkers. City leaders are granting $1 Billion in subsidies so New Yorkers should be provided free access and instruction. We are not.
I am a Senior citizen on a very limited budget who loves museums, zoos, aquariums, galleries, concerts and Broadway shows but definitely cannot afford due to the state of the economy and income. Free would be awesome for so many!
The laws are from a 150 years and later, so the public to benefit from free admission and instruction were residents ...without segregating by age... and schools. So seniors are a cohort to benefit from the free rights according to the laws and complying contracts.
For 150 years, New Yorkers have not been properly informed of our rights to free access and instruction to the 17 park institutions. The study bills will reduce the terms of our rights to writing with a call for a written report within one year of passage.
Pay what you wish is not a provision of New Yorkers' free access. The policy was introduced by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1971, and the other institutions followed suit, in many instances disavowing NYS law requiring free admission to New Yorkers.
We deserve this, this is the bare minimum nyc can offer to its residents
Free
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Only thru the passage if, and the work of, the study bills will New Yorkers' facts be uncovered, codified and published especially as New Yorkers' subsidize these park institutions with $1 Billion annually while being required to pay an admission fee.