NYC Cultural Affairs Commissioner Laurie Cumbo announced yesterday (August 22) that the city’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget includes $213.8 million earmarked for capital improvement projects undertaken by the city’s cultural institutions. “Culture is a pillar of our city’s economy and a critical part of healthy, safe, thriving communities,” she said in a statement. “No other city in America supports its cultural institutions as we do through DCLA’s capital program, partnering with institutions on construction, renovation and equipment projects to deliver remarkable cultural facilities that are open and accessible to all.”
Cumbo made the announcement at an event held at the historic Art Students League building, which is receiving $4.3 million for a 150th-anniversary capital renovation project to upgrade and restore its landmark building, which was constructed in 1892 and designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, the architect behind other iconic New York buildings like the Plaza Hotel and the Dakota Apartments. The planned renovation will restore the skylight roof in its famed Vanderbilt Gallery, which has been covered since the end of WWII when the space was converted into studio spaces to accommodate a surge in veteran students enrolling via the GI Bill.
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Among the other funding recipients are the Asia Society (set to show “Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala”), the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Dia Art Foundation, the International Studio and Curatorial Program, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Botanical Garden, the Park Avenue Armory, Performance Space NY, The Kitchen, SculptureCenter, and the Queens Museum, which is building a new children’s museum space.
Under Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, New York City has made record-setting investments in the cultural sector across all five boroughs, though earlier this year, he came under fire for proposing major cuts in funding for the arts to further pay for the response to the city’s migrant crisis. In June, Adams agreed to restore $53 million in 2025 funding to the Department of Cultural Affairs, which supports more than 1,000 cultural nonprofits across New York. Taken optimistically, the recent funding announcement confirms the vital role of arts in New York and, one hopes, will allow the city’s cultural scene to move into next year reinforced and empowered.