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Arts Groups to Get More Than $100K of Van Bramer's Budget Funds

 The councilman is allocating $106,500 of his discretionary dollars for art, music, and film programming.
The councilman is allocating $106,500 of his discretionary dollars for art, music, and film programming.
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DNAinfo/Jeanmarie Evelly

LONG ISLAND CITY — City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer earmarked funding for nearly two dozen arts groups in this year's city budget, allocating $106,500 of his discretionary dollars to art, music and film programming, budget documents show.

Those getting a slice of the city's $78.5 billion budget include well-known organizations in the council member's district — which covers Long Island City, Woodside and Sunnyside — among them is the Chocolate Factory Theater in Hunters Point, which will get $10,000 for operational expenses.

Van Bramer, who heads the City Council's cultural affairs committee, has also set aside $10,000 for Lincoln Center to host performances at library branches in his district, as well as $8,500 for Thalia Spanish Theatre in Sunnyside to cover things like rent and artists' fees.

"This budget contains many victories for the residents of the 26th District as well as for all New Yorkers, and I am proud of the work that was accomplished," the councilman said in a statement Tuesday.

The Bangladesh Institute of Performing Arts, Inc. will receive $3,500 to host a community festival as well as dance and music workshops for local public school students. Socrates Sculpture Park is getting $5,000 for its "Art Bus" that shuttles visitors for free to several museums on the Queens waterfront.

Other groups that will receive some of Van Bramer's discretionary funds include Local Project, Hip to Hip Theatre Company, Queens Museum and Flux Factory, according to the budget.

The councilman is also providing funding to several local nonprofits outside of the arts realm.

The Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement is set to get $75,536, that will go toward paying the salary of the organization's "community advocate," to support its senior center at the Queensbridge Houses and to fund events organized by Friends of Queensbridge Park.

He's allocated $36,050 for the Samaritan Village senior center in Woodside to offer fitness and yoga programs, and $50,714 to the YMCA to run youth sports leagues.