Ryan Laird on WNYC.

You know, I didn't know until this morning about this trees map that we're giving away.

I didn't know this until this morning about glamping as a contest,

and it's a coincidence because I did know that we were going to have the president of the Brooklyn Botanic

Garden on the show. That's Adrian Benepe. Why leaders of the city's cultural institutions have

come together to ask Mayor Adams to what they

call stop cutting culture. At issue here is the mayor's budget for the new fiscal year,

which begins in July. He's proposing $53 million in cuts to non-profit museums, performing art

centers, historical societies, zoos, and yes, botanical gardens,

that receive city funding. The plea to stop cutting culture is a plea to restore that $53 million.

In a letter to the mayor, this coalition of leaders says, our city's recovery is significant

but fragile, and it cannot withstand uncertainty and continued

cuts to culture. So we're going to talk now with leaders from two of the cultural representatives

included in this coalition. One is Adrian Penopi. Some of you may remember former New York City

Parks Commissioner, now president of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and Regina Bain,

executive director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum, great institution in Queens, in case you

didn't know that existed. So Adrian, welcome back, Regina, welcome to WNYC. Thank you. Thank you. Great

to be back, Brian. Regina, you want to start maybe by way of introduction, give people a 20 or 30 second introduction or elevator pitch for the Louis Armstrong House Museum?

Why, yes, I would. So the Lewis Armstrong House Museum, amazing trumpeter born in New Orleans, but lived for 30 years in Corona Queens.

His home is now a national landmark, and we give tours through that home.

And we just opened the new Armstrong Center last year, a brand new 14,000 square foot,

$26 million facility with a jazz club, with an exhibit curated by Jason Moran, and with the 60,000

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