Creating a Cultural Legacy: Over Four Years, Adams Administration Reshapes & Strengthens Cultural Sector With New Initiatives and Nearly $2 Billion In Record-Setting Investment

For Immediate Release: December 16, 2025

Contact: [email protected]

CREATING A CULTURAL LEGACY: OVER FOUR YEARS, ADAMS ADMINISTRATION RESHAPES & STRENGTHENS CULTURAL SECTOR WITH NEW INITIATIVES AND NEARLY $2 BILLION IN RECORD-SETTING INVESTMENTS

New York, NY - Today, NYC Cultural Affairs Commissioner Laurie Cumbo highlighted the city's investments, initiatives, and programs that over the past four years have created a stronger, more vibrant, equitable, and resilient cultural sector. Under the leadership of Mayor Eric Adams, New York City has made historic investments in culture: across both expense support and capital funding, the total funding allocated through DCLA's programs approaches $2 billion. In 2025 alone, the adopted budget raises DCLA's baseline funding by $45 million, the first substantial baseline increase in more than a decade, bringing the current expense budget to $300 million. This is an all-time record high for the agency, and is supporting programming and operations at more than 1,100 cultural nonprofits in every corner of New York City.

Capital investments have also surged: in FY26, DCLA allocated more than $282 million in new cultural capital funding, supporting renovations, expansions, and new builds for cultural institutions citywide. Across the last four years, the city has allocated more than $938 million in total capital support through DCLA, which will help to reshape the city's cultural landscape in the years to come through new construction, renovations, and other improvements. From the creation of a children's museum within the Queens Museum, to the new Hip-Hop Museum under construction in the Bronx, to the newly-renovated Delacorte Theater in Central Park, renovations to Weeksville Heritage Center's historic houses in Brooklyn, and the restoration of the magnificent St. George Theater on Staten Island: these improvements will ensure that the city's cultural sector can continue to engage New Yorkers and attract visitors for generations to come.

"We took office with a simple promise: to 'Get Stuff Done,' and, four years later, our administration can say we delivered that every day for working-class New Yorkers," said New York City Mayor Adams. "We drove shootings to record lows and pushed jobs and small businesses to record highs. We rewrote the playbook on homelessness and mental health to finally get New Yorkers living on our streets the help they need, and, after decades of half-measures, passed historic housing legislation to turn New York into a 'City of Yes.' We overhauled the way our students learn to read and do math, cut the cost of child care, and forgave medical debt. We eliminated taxes for low-income families, launched free universal after-school programming, and made record investments into our city's cultural institutions. We got scaffolding off our buildings, trash bags off our streets, and opened up new public spaces for New Yorkers to enjoy. The haters may have doubted us, but the results are clear. On issue after issue, we brought common-sense leadership to create a safer, more affordable city, and our work has changed our city for the better; it will stand the test of time because we made New York City the best place to live and raise a family."

"Culture is the heart and soul of our city, and under the leadership of Mayor Adams, we're proud of our track record of historic investments in the arts, along with new and exciting programs to support our sector," said Cultural Affairs Commissioner Laurie Cumbo. "Art and culture drive our city's economy, strengthen our communities, and do so much to educate, inspire, and connect New Yorkers to one another. From the post-pandemic recovery, to charting new paths and solutions to challenges: we've worked hand in hand with our city's cultural sector to deliver world-class cultural experiences that are affordable and accessible to residents in every corner of our city. We couldn't be prouder of the extraordinary legacy we've created in collaboration with colleagues, allies, advocates, and residents across the city."

A number of major milestones, new initiatives, and investments over 2025 and previous years will also have long-lasting influence and impact on the city's cultural landscape:

• Expansion of the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG): On September 30, 2025, Mayor Eric Adams and DCLA Commissioner Laurie Cumbo announced the largest expansion of the city's Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) in nearly five decades. Five new institutions - BRIC; Bronx Children's Museum; Louis Armstrong House Museum; Noble Maritime Collection; and Pregones / Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PRTT) - have been admitted, bringing total CIG membership to 39. This historic expansion reinforces the city's commitment to equitable cultural representation and long-term support for neighborhood-based institutions across all five boroughs.

• Equity-Driven Cultural Development Fund (CDF) & Broad Base of Nonprofit Support: Over the past four years, the Cultural Development Fund (CDF) has provided critical program support to NYC's cultural nonprofits representing the full breadth, depth, and diversity of NYC's cultural landscape. In FY 2025, CDF grants totaled a record $59.3 million awarded to 1,078 organizations citywide, including small community-based groups, individual artists, and nonprofits serving under-resourced communities, people with disabilities, and English-language learners. The CDF has undergone a number of equity-based reforms, including an increase to the minimum awards and creation of a new Equity Fund to increase support for organizations in historically underserved neighborhoods.

• Strengthening Reuse, Sustainability, and Creative Industries through Materials for the Arts: Materials for the Arts (MFTA) - a program of DCLA and the city's premier creative reuse facility - has continued to support thousands of nonprofits, public schools, and arts educators with free materials. In 2024 alone, MFTA diverted more than 6 million pounds of materials - valued at approximately $28.3 million - from landfill, making them available to over 4,400 active member-organizations. In 2025, in its first full year of an expanded partnership with the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME), MFTA received more than $7.4 million worth of donated items from NYC-based film, television, and theater productions - a major boost to creative recycling and the city's sustainability efforts.

• Safeguarding Community-Based Cultural Spaces - Launch of "NYC Create in Place": DCLA launched NYC Create in Place in December 2024 to help small, community-based cultural assets, which are increasingly threatened by the city's affordability crisis. The new interagency program offers case management, technical assistance, and a one-stop online resource hub for cultural organizations and creative businesses seeking to preserve, expand, or relocate their space. NYC Create in Place makes it easier for grassroots arts groups, local theaters, galleries, and creative businesses to access city resources, stabilize their operations, and remain rooted in their neighborhoods. In 2025, Create in Place had a number of milestone achievements, such as assisting the Lower East Side performing arts space wild project acquire their longtime home, and aiding the artists and creative workers impacted by a devastating fire in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

• Transforming the Cityscape - "City Canvas" Public Art Program: The City Canvas program transforms ubiquitous urban safety structures into creative, community-centered public artworks, enhancing the pedestrian experience and supporting NYC's artists. In January 2024, DCLA and the Department of Buildings (DOB) announced the launch of City Canvas as a permanent program, allowing building owners to install public artwork on temporary protective structures. In July 2024, DCLA released the first gallery of pre-approved artwork for sidewalk sheds, scaffolding, and fences - streamlining the licensing process for property owners. By late 2025, pre-approved artworks by artists Lauren Camara, Dennis RedMoon Darkeem, Bayeté Ross Smith, and Zazu Swistel were installed on the protective sidewalk shed surrounding DCLA's offices at 31 Chambers Street.

• Public Art & Percent-for-Art Program - Renewed Commissions & 40th Anniversary: Under its public art mandate, DCLA continues to commission and install permanent artworks across NYC civic spaces, from schools, to libraries, to parks, to rec centers, to streets, and more. In 2024, the agency celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Percent for Art program and launched an interactive map to help New Yorkers explore the collection. In 2025, new permanent works were installed, including five new artworks commissioned for five historic Carnegie branches of the New York Public Library. In 2024, the agency also re-started the She Built NYC program, committing to building new monuments honoring women in all five boroughs, starting with Shirley Chisholm in Brooklyn, Billie Holiday in Queens, and Dr. Helen Rodriguez Trias in the Bronx.

• Building on Public Artists in Residence (PAIR) Program: DCLA continues to advance civic engagement and arts through public-artist residencies: in December 2025, DCLA announced a new cohort of PAIRs who would be working within city agencies on issues including supporting asylum seekers, finding new ways to connect residents to government services, and better serving small businesses in immigrant communities. In 2025, DCLA, the Department of Homeless Services, and Storefront for Art and Architecture also debuted a new work titled "Public Address" by artist Alex Strada (PAIR with the Department of Homeless Services). The work, first unveiled in Lt. Petrosino Square in Lower Manhattan, will travel across all five boroughs over the following year, centering homelessness and housing-insecurity issues.

With nearly $2 billion invested into culture between 2022 and 2025, New York City has renewed its commitment to arts, heritage, and public space as foundational to civic life. The expansion of the Cultural Institutions Group ensures long-term support for more cultural anchors across the five boroughs. Meanwhile, programs like Materials for the Arts, NYC Create in Place, and City Canvas are helping preserve, sustain, and expand access to arts and culture citywide. Whether through renovated theaters, new public artworks, recycled materials for educators, or support for grassroots cultural spaces, DCLA's efforts help ensure that art remains integral to New Yorkers' lives in the city's schools, neighborhoods, streets, and institutions.

###

About NYC Department of Cultural Affairs

The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is dedicated to supporting and strengthening New York City's vibrant cultural life. DCLA works to promote and advocate for quality arts programming and to articulate the contribution made by the cultural community to the City's vitality. The Department represents and serves nonprofit cultural organizations involved in the visual, literary, and performing arts; public-oriented science and humanities institutions including zoos, botanical gardens, and historic and preservation societies; and creative artists at all skill levels who live and work within the City's five boroughs. DCLA also provides donated materials for arts programs offered by the public schools and cultural and social service groups, and commissions permanent works of public art at City-funded construction projects throughout the five boroughs. For more information visit www.nyc.gov/culture.