New York’s Cultural Plan Aims to Boost the Arts, and Diversity, In a Gentrifying City
New York’s Department of Cultural Affairs (DLCA) has released CreateNYC, a wide-ranging plan to strengthen the city’s cultural infrastructure, and address the iniquities that plague it. Considering New York’s status as a world capital of the arts, it’s notable that this is the Big Apple’s first-ever such plan. Other major cities and regions have formulated their own cultural development plans as early as the 1990s.
The project has been headed up by the city’s Cultural Affairs Commissioner, Tom Finkelpearl, along with council majority leader Jimmy Van Bramer, who boast that they’ve had the input of some 200,000 city residents via town halls and online comments.
As Mayor Bill de Blasio pointed out at a press conference Wednesday, the plan includes $18.5 million in new investments for arts and culture in the city.