On July 6, after months of advocacy efforts by arts organizations, community cultural groups, and City Council members, New York City announced a $241 million fiscal year 2024 budget for the Department. of Cultural Affairs (DCLA).
The adopted budget, which according to the agency is a record, follows a open letter addressed to Cultural Affairs Commissioner Laurie Cumbo, Mayor Eric Adams and other New York City officials. A collaborative effort between local arts advocacy groups Latinx Arts Consortium of New York (LxNY), Dance/NYC and the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (ART/NY), the letter took aim at perceived cultural funding inequities in the past. proposed an executive budget and collected 600 signatures from museum professionals, filmmakers, gallerists, performers and others working in New York’s arts and culture sector.
As largest municipal funder of arts and culture in the United States, the DCLA allocates approximately $200 million to artists and arts organizations in the city each year through grants, direct grants, and capital expenditures. City funds make up more than 99% of the DCLA budget.
The enacted budget of $241 million represents less than half of one percent of NYC’s overall $107 billion budget for 2024, but significantly higher than the previously proposed budget. executive budget $157.6 million — which would have been lower than the enacted 2023 budget of $238.1 million. (Unlike the adopted budget, which is finalized, the executive budget is the second and penultimate draft, incorporating changes made after City Council hearings in response to the Mayor’s original proposal.)
The enacted budget for fiscal year 2024, which began July 1, will include additional funding of $40 million to be added upon enactment, $43.9 million for discretionary funding items and initiatives one year of council members, $93 million to be split among the 34 city council members Cultural Institutions Group (CIG), and $59 million for Cultural Development Fund (CDF), which supports the city’s arts and culture nonprofit through an annual grant funding process. An additional $48 million will be used to pay electricity costs for organizations that operate on DCLA-administered properties.
In response to the recently released figures, the authors of the recent open letter said Hyperallergic that they still have uncertainties about how the funds will be distributed, since the DCLA has not yet released a point-by-point breakdown.
“It remains unclear if reporting will be more transparent in the future,” organizers said, adding concerns about the lack of a 2024 budget benchmark. current expenditures to establish sufficient future funding.) On the other hand, the petitioners expressed their appreciation for the budget initiative to introduce three new staff roles within the agency, which will facilitate grant funding. process.
Released in late May, the letter denounced an alleged “disproportionate allocation of resources between programs, and therefore across the city” and claimed that the DCLA’s enacted 2023 budget of $238.1 million had exacerbated budget funding inequities. .
“Many dignified cultural organizations face challenges to our survival, especially organizations led by or serving Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), Immigrant, LGBTQIA+, low-income people , Disabled, and Elderly New Yorkers,” the open letter read. . During the pandemic, the city’s arts and culture industry has suffered greatly, with two-thirds of all jobs in arts, entertainment and recreation disappearing, according to a condition monitor report in February 2021.
The letter goes on to cite the DCLA’s “multi-million dollar increases” in direct grants to the CIG – which has 11 Manhattan-based members out of a total of 34 members – as a significant contributor to what the authors perceive as an unequal distribution. financing. This year’s IGC budget allocation of $93 million represents a decrease of $47 million from the $140 million distributed to Institutional Members last year.
The petitioners also called for more transparency in the DCLA’s CDF reports and other documents, saying that despite a series of equity-based reforms administration introduced in 2023, the agency simultaneously cut funding to “small and medium-sized organizations, many of which are led by and serve communities of color” to make room “for the [grant] increases to other small and medium organizations.
In April, the DCLA announcement that this first year of CDF reforms has led to “increased grants for 73% of grantees, more funding for smaller organizations, and more support for organizations led by and serving people of color.” However, a December 2022 survey of CDF applicants found that 32% of responding organizations received increases, about half of respondents received funding decreases, 7% received no awards, and only two respondents received grants in accordance with the previous year. The survey was conducted by Dance/NYC and ART/NY and received responses from 139 organizations, which represented 11% of all CDF applicants last year.
“In light of this ongoing experience, we affirm that fairness means give more absolute funding is increasing for organizations and neighborhoods currently receiving less, to correct the historic underinvestment they have received and to ensure an equitable distribution of funding and opportunity in the future,” reads the statement. open letter from the organizers.
The announcement of the 2024 budget passed for the DCLA also comes in the wake of criticism from the city council, which released a answer in April, reviewing the draft budget for its lack of adequate funding for the city’s arts and culture sector.
“Council is proud to have prioritized and fought to restore $40 million in funding to the city’s arts and culture organizations for fiscal year 2024 throughout the budget process,” said one. city council spokesperson. Hyperallergic.
Despite the administration’s record budget, advocates continue to stress that core funding remains most critical to ensuring that funding will adequately support New York’s most vulnerable arts and culture organizations.
“While there were no reductions in funding levels from the previous year, this FY24 budget has not been established. Without a baseline, we face a labor-intensive struggle year after year just to maintain the same level, which, after adjusting for inflation, actually results in a reduction,” have organizers said.
