BY JAIDA DENT
With the new mayoral election approaching, candidates have been open about their stance on several issues facing the city, including affordability, public safety, and even what their possible relationship with President Trump could look like. Yet, one issue that doesn’t surface as often is what the next mayor will do for the arts and cultural institutions in the city.
In January of this year, during his State of the City Address, Mayor Eric Adams announced that he would introduce five new members to the city-funded Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) program. He followed through on his statements by the end of September in adding the new members, an action that hasn’t been done since 1978, which was the last time five members were added at once.
“Our cultural institutions bring families together [and] empower our economy. To strengthen our culture sector even further, this year, we will designate five more organizations as cultural institution groups to ensure they get the support they need to thrive,” said Adams.
As members, the organizations will be better supported by the city, including receiving nearly $3 million annually, and will no longer pay rent in their spaces, according to a press release from the Mayor’s Office. Mayor Adams also showed his support for the city’s arts and culture scene by allotting $254 million for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), which will be put towards 1,000 cultural nonprofit organizations in the city.
During his time as Governor, Andrew Cuomo introduced art initiatives that would benefit the artists of New York. In 2020, he announced the artistic redesign of LaGuardia Airport, which included a partnership with the New York Public Art Fund to bring in large art installations. The project was a part of LaGuardia’s $8 billion Terminal B construction, and provided installations to “four of the world’s leading artists”.
In 2021, Cuomo announced that $105 million in grants would be put towards critical arts and cultural funding through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). There would also be new programming that would help revitalize the arts and culture scene in New York State after the hits from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We must build New York back better than it was before, and part of that process will be strengthening and reinvigorating our state’s creative economy,” Governor Cuomo said in a press release on the ny.gov website. “These grants will pay dividends through the economic activity generated by our creative ecosystem, which will continue to flourish and inspire us as we work together to make New York stronger than ever.”
Though there aren’t any new updates on what Cuomo will do for NYC’s arts as mayor, several figures in the art world donated to his campaign.
Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa has not been shy about his support for the arts, as he made his stance clear in a questionnaire from the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable. Sliwa would see the arts as a fundamental part of a child’s development and education, and cites the arts as “an amazing galvanizing force for children in the educational setting because it allows expression in an open format with no parameters.”
When asked if he were elected, would he require that public schools implement and follow the city and state arts and learning mandates, he stated he would. According to NYCAIER, 69% of middle school students did not meet the NYSED Arts Learning Requirements in the 2024-2025 school year. Sliwa stated that he would create targeted support and monitoring of schools failing to meet the requirements, and provide financial assistance to the art curriculum.
“It is unjust to rob students of the arts — a vital part of a well-rounded education that nurtures creativity, confidence, and emotional expression,” said Sliwa. “We must do better to create an environment where every student has the opportunity to explore their artistic passions and flourish.”
Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani has the closest connection to the arts, as his mother, Mira Nair, is a filmmaker, and his wife, Rama Duwaji, is an artist and illustrator as well. In February, Mamdani was featured in a panel discussion with other mayoral candidates surrounding arts and culture, hosted by BRIC and NY4CA, and the Culture and Arts Policy Institute.
Along with his connection to the arts through blood, his background as an immigrant from Uganda informs his stance on the representation of people of color in the art sector. He shares his perspective on art as more than a business, but rather an act of storytelling, and that artists of all backgrounds should have an equal opportunity to share their stories.
“What I’m committed to doing as the mayor is to understanding art beyond simply tourism, beyond the fiscal impacts, because so much of the beauty and the value of art is found in neighborhoods far from Museum Mile,” Mamdani said, “and what we need is an administration that looks at those community-based organizations that are providing art to their neighbors as being equally valuable as the same ones that we visit on Sundays.”
Mamdani cites his affordable housing plan as a way of helping artists in New York City, through relieving the burden of housing, so that they can focus on their art.
“I think art, in many ways, at its core, is an act of dreaming, and you cannot afford to dream if you cannot afford your rent, if you cannot afford your child care, your groceries, your Metro card,” Mamdani said. “And when we think about how do we make this a city where artists could not just survive but thrive and prosper, it is one where we have to ensure that artists can actually afford where they live.”