Brooklyn Children’s Museum receives $100,000 grant to sponsor free field trips
New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Councilmember Chi Ossé partnered to give a $100,000 grant to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum (BCM) to sponsor free field trips for children from low-income families at schools across Brooklyn.
The BCM was founded in 1899 as the world’s first children’s museum and has grown to be New York City’s largest and most beloved cultural institution designed especially for families. It serves an estimated 300,000 children and caregivers annually.
“We are deeply grateful to Council Speaker Adams and Councilmember Ossé for their unwavering commitment to supporting education and community in Brooklyn,” said BCM President and CEO Atiba T. Edwards. “This grant allows us to expand our impact, ensuring that more students can benefit from the kind of experiential learning that strengthens academic foundations and builds critical social skills.
After a short museum tour, Adams and Ossé presented Edwards with a giant check on Oct. 3.
“The phenomenal Brooklyn Children’s Museum has supported our children’s education for over 125 years,” said Adams, a former educator herself. “Because of your work generations of New Yorkers have had access to enriching experiences and programs that have deepened their knowledge and understanding of the entire world. We can all remember what it was like to be a child. To marvel at the scale and majesty of the world and wonder how it came to be. That curiosity should be nourished and protected, because it is critical to shaping our minds and future.”
According to the BCM, Brooklyn is the borough with the most Title I, or low-income, schools in the city. Their sponsored field trips are designed to align with state learning standards and immersive experiences and include access to the museum’s exhibits, visual arts, hands-on STEM areas, world cultures markets, and civic engagement meant to foster curiosity and creativity among students. Multiple studies, said the BCM, have demonstrated the value of field trips in boosting cultural awareness, reinforcing personal development, and positively impacting academic outcomes.
“The Brooklyn Children’s Museum was a central element in my childhood, as it was for countless Brooklynites,” said Ossé. “Extending that gift to as many children as possible is a noble goal. I am thrilled to support this program. From my perspective as both the political representative of the museum and as a son of Brooklyn, I recognize this program to be incredibly beneficial to education outcomes, social and emotional well-being, and cultural awareness. I hope this model is replicated across the city.”
Adams added that the city council has fought long and hard for funding in the city budget for libraries and cultural institutions against the Mayor’s budget cuts over the last year.
“The city council had to fight to make sure that funding for those institutions that empower and teach and enrich New Yorkers had to happen,” she said. “And not just had to happen once, but we made sure we baselined all of this activity so that we never — no council — will ever have to fight the way that we had to fight to get it back.”
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