By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — The Metropolitan Museum of Art could lose nearly half of its city funding next year if proposed massive city budget cuts to cultural organizations aren't restored.
The museum is just one of a number citywide cultural institutions — including such Manhattan destinations as the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Jewish Heritage and El Museo del Barrio — set to lose 53 percent of their funding next year.
In fiscal year 2010, the Met received $12 million from the city and $10.6 million in fiscal year 2011, spokesman Harold Holzer told DNAinfo.
Under the current budget for fiscal year 2012, the museum is only slated to receive only $5.4 million, though he was hopeful that would change after negotiations.
With city subsidies on the wane and fundraising feeling the brunt of the bad economy, the museum announced earlier this month it was raising its suggested entrance fee to $25 from $20 starting July 1.
On Thursday the museum, which has a $2.3 billion endowment, and the city's other cultural institutions received a groundswell of support in the form of tens of thousands of signatures delivered to City Hall.
The petitions with 55,000 signatures were sent there as lawmakers enter final budget negotiations. Being threatened with big cuts and then negotiating for smaller cuts has become annual spring rite of passage.
The Met isn't the only cultural institution that's hurting.
Other Manhattan groups in the same boat are the American Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Hall, New York City Ballet, New York City Opera, the Museum of the City of New York and New York City Center.
These institutions "are economic drivers that drive tourism, bring business to local merchants, create jobs, and are educational resources for families," said John Calvelli, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium and Central Park Zoo, among others, and spearheaded the petition. "It is counterproductive to cut city support of culture – it is what makes this city great.
"Through this petition, the collective voice of the people of New York will be heard by our elected officials," he added.
