Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a New York City-wide ID card program that garners cultural benefits last Thursday at the Bronx Zoo.
New York City plans to start issuing the cards next year in an effort to make life easier for undocumented immigrants and local New Yorkers. The cards will come with free tickets or discounts at 33 of the city’s leading cultural institutions, including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Bronx Zoo, the New York Botanical Garden, the American Museum of Natural History, the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and many others.
The cards are rumored to be available to any city resident over 14, regardless of their legal status.
The freebies are meant to encourage cultural curiosity among immigrants and New Yorkers alike who cannot afford to participate in the arts.
"We're looking at this as an investment in the future," said Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman.
"There was talk about what this will cost to individual members and potential lost revenue," Lehman continued. "But everybody came together around the idea that this is about the future. It really broadens the base."
Currently, the cards will offer free memberships to some museums in an effort to drive people to renew, but New Yorkers with current museum memberships will not be eligible for the discounts offered there. The same goes for anyone whose membership lapsed after Jan. 1, 2012.
"I think we have to remember what these institutions are here for," said de Blasio. "From my point of view, this is about the mission to expose this entire city to our cultural assets."
Although some museum directors think the ID cards may not improve membership, Metropolitan Museum of Art President Emily K. Rafferty believes it will enhance awareness of the existence of cultural locations.
"The value for all of us, as the mayor says, is in our accessibility, and maximizing our accessibility for those people who have not have crossed our thresholds," said Rafferty. "For us, we look at it as an expansion of our audiences, which is something that is a core part of all of our missions."
To most, this is a long hoped for gateway to explore all that New York has to offer at a price the working class can afford.
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