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10/01/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/01/2025 08:51

New York City Names The Louis Armstrong House Museum As New Member Of The Cultural Institutions Group

Five New Members Have Been Added In This Historic Expansion

The Louis Armstrong Center and Archive. Photo Credit: Albert Vercerka/Esto

October 1 - New York, NY - Today, Mayor Eric Adams and Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) Commissioner Laurie Cumbo have announced the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, NY as one of five new members of the city's Cultural Institutions Group (CIG). The new CIG members - one in each of the five boroughs - have a range of disciplines and missions, all rooted in offering cultural enrichment and programming for all New Yorkers.

Executive Director Regina Bain shared"As a result of becoming part of the Cultural Institutions Group, The Louis Armstrong House Museum is poised to pursue opportunities for our communities we had only imagined. This support helps to provide fiscal stability for a new facility built on historic grounds for a new generation, serving visitors from around the block and around the world. It recognizes our decades-long commitment to art and education in this community, highlighted by being awarded the National Medal for Museums in 2024. In all of this work, we carry the spirit of those that have come before us. Their work - now, our work, moves us forward. We are deeply thankful for this opportunity and vote of confidence from Mayor Adams, Commissioner Cumbo, and the City of New York."

This announcement comes ahead of The Louis Armstrong House Museum and Archival Center's new oral history exhibition The Corona Collection opening on Thursday, October 2, and performances by cohorts of their Armstrong Now Artist-in-Residence program, Etienne Charles and Irishia Hubbard Romaine. Read more on both here .

With these five new groups, there are now 39 members of the CIG - which consists of cultural organizations operating on city-owned property and receive substantial subsidies for operations and energy costs, as well as capital investment from the city. The new CIGs announced today will broaden this collection of world-class institutions, making it even more vibrant and reflective of the city they serve.

The city's FY2026 adopted budget makes record-breaking investments in the city's cultural sector across the board, with nearly $300 million allocated for DCLA - the largest-ever allocation for the agency and a major increase over recent years' budgets. At a challenging time for the city's cultural sector, DCLA's record support and the permanent support for these new CIGs will help to ensure the sector's long-term stability and ability to thrive and offer affordable, accessible programming for all New Yorkers.

The CIG is one of the city's strongest public-private partnerships, made up of museums, historical societies, performing arts centers, botanic gardens and zoos across the five boroughs. The CIG model was established in 1869 when a group of prominent New Yorkers approached the city with a proposal: they would create a private, nonprofit institution and operate it for public benefit, in exchange for city land and support. That institution became the American Museum of Natural History. The following year in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art became the second institution chartered on this model. The CIG grew sporadically over the years, including the addition of New York City Center by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who saved the historic Masonic theater from the wrecking ball by granting it CIG status. In the 1960s and 70s, there was a concerted push by advocates and activists to expand the CIG with an eye toward fostering greater diversity in its ranks, which resulted in institutions like the Studio Museum in Harlem, El Museo del Barrio, the Bronx Museum, and Flushing Town Hall joining its membership. Over the last century and a half, the CIG has become a pillar of New York City - helping to attract visitors, drive the economy, and strengthen communities across the five boroughs.

The last new member of the CIG was the Weeksville Heritage Center, which joined in 2019. Prior to that, the last organization to join the CIG was the Museum of Jewish Heritage in 1997. The five new CIGs are all located on city property and previously received annual support through DCLA's Cultural Development Fund grant program in addition to an energy subsidy. As a member of the CIG, each organization will now receive an annual operating subsidy (in lieu of CDF grant) in an amount set DCLA. These new five organizations were added following a rigorous analysis of operations, visitorship, and other factors completed by DCLA in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget.

ABOUT LOUIS ARMSTRONG HOUSE MUSEUM

Louis Armstrong is a definitive arbiter of Jazz and America's first Black popular music icon. He entertained millions, from heads of state and royalty to the kids on his stoop in the working-class neighborhood of Corona, Queens. The Louis Armstrong House Museum preserves this legacy by offering guided tours of the historic home and preserving Armstrong's 60,000-piece archives. The Museum is in the midst of a dramatic physical and programmatic transformation, marked most visibly by the opening of the new Louis Armstrong Center, located across the street from the historic home. The new Center helps advance our mission of preserving the legacy of Louis and Lucille Armstrong, and to live their values of artistic excellence, education and community. The expanded campus will become a new, international destination celebrating Armstrong's distinctive role in African-Diaspora history and vitality, offering year-round exhibitions, performances, readings, lectures, and screenings through an array of public programs for all ages.

The Center and the historic house are open to the public Thursdays through Saturdays. Tickets can be purchased on the Museum's website. Advance purchase is highly recommended as tours of the Center and the historic house have limited capacity. Authors, researchers and other scholars can visit the Armstrong archives by advance appointment. For ticketing and more information about the new Center, visit www.louisarmstronghouse.org .

LOUIS ARMSTRONG HOUSE MUSEUM:

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ARMSTRONG NOW PROGRAM

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