BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a $250,000 grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to support Expanding BBG’s Welcome, an initiative to improve access to the Garden and its programs for people of all ages living with various abilities.
The federal grant from IMLS will provide $250,000 over three years for projects that complement major investments Brooklyn Botanic Garden is making to improve accessibility in its physical landscape. Expanding BBG’s Welcome will help the Garden establish a new level of access and inclusion for those living with ambulatory, cognitive, hearing, vision, and other impairments and to signal the Garden’s readiness to serve those of all abilities as visitors and in programs.
In the next year, Brooklyn Botanic Garden will complete a decade-long, multistage site refinement—the most significant in its 107-year history. This series of projects has enabled the Garden to make major strides to address accessibility in the physical landscape of BBG’s 52 acres. With the funding for Expanding BBG’s Welcome, the Garden will evaluate and and advance inclusiveness in programming and operations and enhance communications about these changes to attract and serve audiences with special needs.
“Expanding BBG’s Welcome is closely aligned with Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s mission and core values—a founding principle of the Garden has been to make it a welcoming place for all visitors,” said Scot Medbury, president of Brooklyn Botanic Garden. “This grant from IMLS will allow the Garden to make a deep and comprehensive investment in establishing an institution-wide baseline for inclusively welcoming and serving visitors with special needs at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.”
–Brooklyn Botanic Garden
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