Van Bramer at the announcement of a new arts district in Astoria
He played drums as a teenager for the St. Joseph’s Brigade, a Catholic fife, drum and bugle corps. He fondly recalls singing along to his mother’s 45s while he and his seven siblings cleaned their childhood home in Astoria, Queens. (“Top of the World,” by the Carpenters was a favorite.)
And as a fan of musicals, he notes that a high point of his 2010 inauguration into the City Council was a student rendition of “Somewhere,” from “West Side Story.”
Still, Jimmy Van Bramer does not have the standard résumé for someone who has emerged as an important cultural figure in New York City.
No music school degree. No time spent as a corporate bigwig on a major cultural board. No parents with an outspoken passion for the arts.
Nonetheless, as chairman of the Cultural Affairs Committee — and now majority leader — Mr. Van Bramer has carved out a niche as the Council’s champion of the arts, one whom cultural organizations have come to rely on as they press their agenda forward with a new administration.
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