By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday announced a record $59.3 million in Cultural Development Fund grants to 1,078 cultural organizations across the five boroughs.
The money — which is awarded annually by the City Department of Cultural Affairs using a competitive, peer-evaluated grant process — includes $51.9 million from the Mayor’s Office and $7.4 million from members of the City Council.
According to administration officials, funding from the CDF supports a broad range of artistic, cultural, and historic organizations across New York City, helping support good-paying jobs and strengthening the city’s flourishing cultural sector. Additionally, this year’s CDF includes investments to create a more inclusive cultural sector, as funding will support people who speak a language other than English, people with disabilities, vulnerable populations, and more.
This year’s CDF both restored and expanded investments in several initiatives to help create a more inclusive cultural sector, including:
- The Disability Forward Fund: Through this fund, 42 organizations will receive an additional $10,000 each in grant funding to deepen engagement of people with disabilities, including artists, cultural workers, and audience members; to support new work created by people with disabilities; to help connect people with disabilities to jobs in the cultural sector; and to promote successful models for engaging the disability community through cultural programming.
- Increase for Borough Arts Councils: Through the Greater New York Arts Development Fund, DCA provides funding to local arts councils in each borough to distribute to individual artists and small nonprofits in their respective boroughs. This year, the GNYADF includes $3.4 million for distribution among the arts councils — a 15-percent increase over their FY 2024 allotment. This funding is aimed at expanding opportunities for local artists so they can afford to continue to live and work in New York City.
- CDF Equity Fund: Through this fund, 264 organizations operating in areas of New York City with the lowest median incomes and highest poverty rates will receive a total of $2 million in additional funding on top of their CDF awards, helping ensure that public resources are directed to areas of the city where they are needed most and making a major investment in the overall wellbeing and vibrancy of some of New York’s most vulnerable communities.
- Additional Support for Completing Capital Projects: New facilities often require cultural organizations to ramp up operations, threatening their financial health and stability. As part of the CDF Equity Fund, several organizations received additional funding tied to the completion of major capital projects to avoid financial disruption and support groups as they bring new facilities online. Recipients of this support include the Bushwick Starr, the Frick Collection, La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, and the Louis Armstrong House Museum, all of which have completed major capital expansion projects.
“We’re thrilled that Mayor Adams is deepening New York City’s investment in arts and culture. New York Foundation for the Arts is excited to once again administer the Queens Arts Fund, which not only encourages and supports the work of artists, collectives, and organizations but brings a range of exciting programming to neighborhoods throughout Queens,” said Michael Royce, CEO, NYFA.
DCA Commissioner Laurie Cumbo added, “Simply put, there is no New York City without the cultural sector that strengthens our communities, drives our economy, and makes us the creative capital of the world.”
