Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at the Brooklyn Museum

November 22, 2021

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Noisy crowd. I'm impressed. Thank you, everyone. I know I'm in my beloved Brooklyn, because it's loud. Thank you, everybody. I really want to thank you. I also like this rally style thing you got going with the sign. Just like Anne was talking about the rallies outside, how you brought the rally inside. Thank you. And I want to express my love and appreciation for everyone here, because you love this place, and you love Brooklyn, and you've made something amazing happen. Every single one of you. And it's a very emotional moment for me as well, because I see this museum as a sacred space. And I see it as more than a museum. And I want to talk about that and why this was so important to do. I want to first just do some quick thank you's. Obviously, Gonzalo, talked about when we spoke about vision for this city and culture in this city, and I left out the part that, Gonzalo, there's a pandemic expected, because we didn't know that. And he had to take on an extraordinary task of helping this city back and recognizing the fullness of what we could, and should, and must do for the artists and cultural community, but also what it meant for all of us. And we worked together and created the idea of the City Artists Corps, which he just referenced, and putting money directly in the hands of artists, so they could help us all come back.

[Applause]

And we borrowed that right out of the New Deal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, I want to be very clear. But I think this is an idea that has tremendous resonance for the future. I want to urge you all to be messengers of this idea, that there is no reason in the world, our city in particular, shouldn't directly support artists in more and more ways because it's who we are. This is what we confronted in the pandemic. It was not about economics. Yeah, that's always a factor, but it wasn't about economics. In the end, it was about heart and soul and identity. We are the ultimate city of arts and culture. It's who we are. It is how we express our humanity in this most human and literally the most diverse place on earth. Our humanity forward through our artists. And we can never let that slip away. We can never let that slip away. So, to everyone at Department of Cultural Affairs – I know it was labor love for you and Gonzalo – thank you for your incredibly soulful relationship. We made that happen. Well done.

[Applause]

No one – no one is more passionate about promoting arts and culture and public investment in it. And, literally, no one is louder in the entire City Council than our Council Member Laurie Cumbo, and louder in every way, in all the right ways. Thank you. And then to all the board members for everything you've done for your incredible commitment to this museum. Obviously, Barbara and Stephanie, you played a particularly crucial role in getting this done. Thank you. You came with passion and vision and it made a huge difference. And then, and you wear passionate and vision on your sleeve and that's a compliment. This is truly – I can tell every time you speak that, you see the amazing possibilities you've built so much, but you see the amazing possibilities ahead in this place.

But now, let me tell you what our field, this really is about, because a long time ago. I honestly – I lived nearby, but I didn't understand the meaning of the Brooklyn Museum. And I cannot tell a lie to you. When I first came to this neighborhood almost 30 years ago, I saw a big imposing building and it felt like just another traditional manifestation of what we'd all been taught the museum was. And a lot of us were not taught that a museum was a place for us. And let's just break it down here. Many, many people, depending on where you live, the color of your skin, how much money you had in your bank account, you got a message that a museum was for a certain group of people and not necessarily for everyone else. Maybe that was inadvertent, maybe in some cases more purposeful, but that's what it felt like to many, many people. And then the Brooklyn Museum, and I started to see this about 20 years ago, really started to break that paradigm and send an entirely different message in a way. I think very few cultural institutions have achieved not only in this city, but all over the world. And the message was, everyone come on in. Everyone belongs. Everyone belongs.

[Applause]

And what I loved about it was there was no diminution of the mission. If anyone, you know, is “a purist” about giving an opportunity to artists to be displayed or to recognize a great cultural works of the past, none of that was in any way lessened by making this a place for the people. It was – in my view, it was elevated, because all those great works of art down through centuries, in so many cases were commentaries on an evolving world. They weren't meant to be – this sounds kind of stupid, but I'm going to say it – they weren't meant to be museum pieces in the sense of static or unmoving. The artists who created them, whether you're talking about thousands of years ago in antiquity, or in the Renaissance, or in the last century, the artists were expressing what they saw, what they felt, what they perceived and always looking to where it would take us. And it was never meant to be ossified. It was meant to inform. It was meant to enlighten. It was meant to inspire. And this place allows that to happen and allows it to happen for hundreds of thousands of people, including many people who never would have stepped in a museum. But for the way you opened up your arms and you made accessible and you made it energetic and you made it fun and you made it joyful and you made it useful.

So, to me, the honor we owe to our artists, the honor we owe to the cultural community is it allows us – everyone's work, allows us to see ourselves better and allows us to believe in our better angels, allows us to see what might be. And that is so necessary in this moment in history, when there's so much fear, there's confusion, there's division. And that moment when you're standing in front of a work of art, it, kind of, re-centers you, gives you back that charge, gives you back that hope, gives you back a sense of this too shall pass. We have something we can do together. That's why it's a sacred space. And that's why we have to support it. This place is not just a building. It's not just a place with a noble history. It's a living, breathing hope for Brooklyn and for the world. And so, we have to support it.

[Applause]

As a Brooklynite, I have to say – and the group that met with us at City Hall, shamelessly appealed to my Brooklynite nature. Shamelessly –

[Laughter]

I'm a proud Brooklynite – guilty. Guilty as charged. I love my borough.

[Applause]

And Brooklyn does – honestly, we love all five boroughs, love our state, we love our nation, but Brooklyn has this incredible habit of leading the way and lighting the path.

[Applause]

And this is truly one of the places, where the spirit of Brooklyn is strongest and where the hope of Brooklyn is brightest. And so, I've told you some of the reasons why I love this museum, why see it is more than anything we ever were taught to think of a museum to be, why it must be preserved. It must be built up. It must be strengthened. Those are some of my reasons. I could give you 50 million more reasons why we need to help the Brooklyn Museum.

[Applause]

What’s on the other side of this, I wonder? Ready, everybody?

[Applause]

And it’s off to the bank, everybody. I will tell you, one thing I can say about the City of New York, our checks don't bounce. So, that's good. But everybody, this is truly well earned. Every single person here, whether you're a board member, whether you're someone who works at the museum, whether you've ever been a part of supporting the museum – everyone, you earned this because you had incredible vision and you bring it to life every single day. Thank you. Thank you.

[Applause]

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