The Department of Culture Affairs Announces Major Funding Reform for City’s Non-Profit Cultural Community

The Department of Culture Affairs Announces Major Funding Reform for City’s Non-Profit Cultural Community

The Department of Cultural Affairs is implementing significant changes to City funding for non-profit cultural organizations. These reforms will mean more public funds for hundreds of non-profit cultural groups throughout the City, and will affect both organizations eligible for program funds and members of the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG).

For details about the plan, please click:
Cultural Funding Reform
Frequently Asked Questions
Press Release from Mayor Bloomberg’s Announcement
Highlights:

Cultural Programs

The plan allocates $30 million toward a merit-based, competitive review process for all cultural organizations eligible for program funding, including those that have received Line Item support, those that have had Member Item allocations and those that have gone through DCA’s competitive process previously. Under this new scenario, all three of those groups will be reviewed through a competitive, merit-based peer-panel review process.

During the first week of February, DCA will also conduct a series of six meetings through the five boroughs to discuss the new process with cultural groups and answer any questions you may have. A schedule of those meetings will be posted on this website shortly.

As usual, the agency will also host a series of application seminars prior to the deadline for fiscal year 2008. Applications will be made available to download from DCA’s website as of February 16, and will be mailed to the cultural field and elected officials on February 20, 2007. The deadline for Fiscal 2008 applications will be Monday, March 26, 2007. Be sure to note that this is four months earlier than last year’s application deadline. Panels will begin reviewing applications in early May, 2007 so that organizations can begin the fiscal year knowing their City allocation.

Members of the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG)

The plan stabilizes the budget for the 34 City-owned cultural institutions by baselining $115.3 million, establishes a “New Needs” fund of $4 million to strategically address evolving needs at CIGs, and introduces new accountability measures. CIGs will now be reviewed under “CultureStat,” a performance-based review process that will help the individual institutions and the City more effectively monitor and encourage organizational best practices and good governance.


Public Informational Sessions

The staff of the Department of Cultural Affairs will host informational sessions on these reforms.

Please note that each session will present the same information and you are welcome to attend any session regardless of the location it is being held in.

These sessions will take place as follows:
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
SESSION FULL
4:30 pm

Hostos Community CollegeSavoy Multipurpose Meeting
120 East 149th Street, Bronx, NY

Thursday, February 8, 2007
SESSION FULL
10:00 am
P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, NY

Thursday, February 8, 2007
SESSION FULL
1:00 pm

Department of Cultural Affairs
31 Chambers Street, New York, NY


All sessions are open to the public, but space must be reserved at least 24 hours in advance.


To R.S.V.P. for a session, send an email to reservations@culture.nyc.gov.
Please indicate the date of the session you would like to attend in the subject line or body of your email (e.g., “February 1”)

Please also include your name and organizational affiliation (if appropriate) in the body of the email.

Reservations will be accepted on a first-come basis, and waiting lists will be started as necessary.

Arts Entrepreneurial Loan Fund

The New York City Investment Fund recently launched the Arts Entrepreneurial Loan Fund, a program that offers loans to non-profit arts and cultural organizations headquartered in New York City. Funding is available for revenue generating activities, infrastructure projects and bridge financing. Loan amounts range from $25,000 - $500,000.

To request an application or for additional information on the application process, please call 212-493-7442 or visit www.nycif.org/artsfund.


Major Public Art Event Comes to New York City this January

The Museum of Modern Art and Creative Time have jointly commissioned artist Doug Aitken to create a large-scale public artwork that will envelop MoMA’s building with continuous sequences of film scenes.

The images are projected on the 53rd and 54th Street facades and those overlooking the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. Inspired by the densely built environment of New York’s midtown, the artist has created a cinematic art experience that will directly integrate with the City’s architecture, while enhancing and challenging viewers’ perceptions of public space.

Entitled sleepwalkers, the artwork is shown daily from January 16 to February 12, 2007, from dusk until 10:00 p.m., and is visible from many public vantage points adjacent to the Museum. For more information, please visit www.moma.org or www.creativetime.org. If you would like to see a preview of the project, visit http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2007/aitken/.

Doug Aitken… the winter season… What better excuse to promote culture everywhere!
Doug Aitken’s sleepwalkers also offers DCLA an exciting opportunity to highlight the countless cultural events taking place throughout the City over the same time period.

Click here to view a sample of these events:


Department of Cultural Affairs Launches Event Finder

We are delighted to announce that in the near future, DCLA will be launching Event Finder, the City’s first centralized online listing of cultural events. This fully searchable events database will interface with all of nyc.gov’s online calendars, as well as with 311, allowing New Yorkers and visitors to discover cultural activities taking place throughout the five boroughs. We have created a user-friendly form that will allow organizations to input events that may be accessed by clicking here. If you have any questions or would like any additional information, please do not hesitate to send an email to helpdesk@culture.nyc.gov.


Your New York Starts Here - Daily Public Service Announcements on 96.3 FM WQXR Radio
For more information about this program, please click here. To submit your events, please click here to download the event form and send your completed form as an attachment to pr@culture.nyc.gov.


Commissioner's Picks

Commissioner Kate D. Levin chose events at the following organizations for WQXR's Commissioner's Picks segment on Thursday, January 25. Visit each website for more detailed event information.


Robert Moses and the Modern City at the Queens Museum of Art, Museum of the City of New York, and Wallach Art Gallerywww.queensmuseum.org, www.mcny.org, www.columbia.edu/cu/wallach/

The full website for the Robert Moses and the Modern City is coming soon.

Brooklyn Next at venues throughout Brooklyn including Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Galapagos Art Space, Issue Project Room, and Five Myles
www.bam.org

Groundhogs Day Celebration at the Staten Island Zoo
www.statenislandzoo.org
February is Museum Month at WQXR

WQXR has named February “Museum Month.” Tune in for special announcements about the latest exhibitions and events happening at museums across the five boroughs and the chance to win prizes, including a museum membership. Click here for a schedule of featured museums.