MAYOR’S GRANT FOR CULTURAL IMPACT TO SUPPORT SEVEN PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN CITY AGENCIES AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS

Through over $500,000 in direct and in-kind funding, supported partnerships address a range of pressing civic issues, from public safety to immigration to literacy

The new grant program is an outgrowth of CreateNYC, which found major potential for new and expanded collaborations between City government and arts organizations 

  Mayor de Blasio and Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl announced the selection of seven new and expanded partnerships for funding under the first Mayor’s Grant for Cultural Impact (MGCI). An outgrowth of the CreateNYC cultural plan, the collaborations supported by MGCI seek to enhance vital public services through cultural and creative programming, bringing the unique benefits of arts and culture to help address pressing civic issues including public health and safety, domestic violence, literacy, planning, immigration, and criminal justice.

"Our CreateNYC cultural plan called for thoughtful, innovative ways to integrate our City's creative energy into public service. Today, we continue to put that into action," said Mayor Bill de Blasio. "When City government works hand in hand with community anchors, we can deliver the cultural access and equity which all New Yorkers deserve."

“I often point out that poetry and dance were safe outlets to channel difficult emotions in my teenage years,” said First Lady Chirlane McCray, who leads the City’s mental health and substance misuse efforts. “However, art has many benefits throughout ALL stages of life, and in New York City the arts should be for everyone. With these new grants, New York City is harnessing the power of art to promote literacy, encourage healthy relationships, support immigrant families, and help our youngest New Yorkers learn coping skills. Most importantly, the new funding will support communities that have historically been excluded from fully experiencing the cultural and artistic life of the city.”

"Culture is essential to the health of our communities so it's exciting to see that the Mayor's Grant for Cultural Impact, arising directly from the public input we received for the CreateNYC cultural plan, will have such a profound effect on so many New Yorkers," saidCultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl. "These innovative collaborations employ dance, poetry, literature, film, and other disciplines to help address longstanding civic issues, and with such a remarkable and committed group of partners, we hope these projects will become lasting examples of how art can be used to foster real social change."

“The mission of Create NYC is to bring culture and the arts to more New Yorkers and make access to culture more equitable for all,” said Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer. “Today’s announcement demonstrates the power of culture and the arts to connect New Yorkers in all neighborhoods and of all backgrounds to these life changing experiences. I am proud of the work we have done in the City Council’s committee on Cultural Affairs to support these values, and I am excited to see this $500,000 announcement supporting seven innovative partnerships between city government and cultural organizations.”

The seven partnerships were selected through an open call and application process. Each collaboration will receive $50,000 in cash support from the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), and an additional $25,000 match of either in-kind or cash award from the partnering agency, for a total of over $500,000 in City support.  Programs must conclude by the close of the fiscal year on June 30, 2018.

The seven winning collaborations were announced by Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl today at an event at Gibney Dance, which received a grant to expand their work with the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence. Photos from the event are available upon request.

The winning projects are:

 ·         ARTs East NY will partner with the NYC Department of City Planning to createCivLab, a public space activation project in East New York. This pilot program will bring together city planners, local artists, and residents to better integrate the arts into civic life, building on the City’s East New York Neighborhood Plan. The project will enliven an underused portion of Success Garden, a community garden surrounded by an area in transformation.

·         Bronx Documentary Center (BDC) will work with the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice to launch Claremont Illuminated, a series of nocturnal artworks and programming seeking to promote community safety and connections in the Claremont Village neighborhood of the South Bronx. Site specific artworks will literally light up underutilized open spaces in the community, including Butler Houses public housing. Artists from BDC’s network will hire local young people and collaborate with residents and area organizations to locate, plan, and install media-, light-, and sound-based projects. This initiative will be part of the Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety, intended to reduce crime and strengthen neighborhoods citywide.

·         Carnegie Hall and the Department of Probation (DOP) will continue their successful partnership centered on DOP’s Neighborhood Opportunity Network (NeON) arts initiative by expanding the Free Verse Poetry Apprentice Project, which began in the South Bronx and will now launch in Northern Staten Island and Jamaica, Queens. Free year-round literary arts programming will build connections between people on probation and their neighbors, and will generate new pathways to employment in NYC’s arts economy in areas known for high levels of poverty and unemployment.

·         Cool Culture will continue work with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) on promoting arts engagement in family shelters, an initiative designed to encourage exploration of art and culture by preschool-aged children living or receiving childcare in 93 shelters across the city. In addition, participating families will be offered free access to 90 cultural institutions citywide.

·         Gibney Dance will expand Hands are for Holding (HAFH) in a continued collaboration with the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence (OCDV). The interactive school-based program uses dance as a tool for preventing teen dating violence and promoting healthy relationships. The expansion will enable many more students to attend HAFH assemblies, with a particular emphasis on middle school students just beginning to explore dating relationships. Further, one middle school in need will be selected to host an intensive HAFH residency to explore more in-depth strategies for engaging students and increasing dating violence awareness through dance.

·         The National Book Foundation will collaborate with the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) to launch Raising Readers: Books are for Everyone, an initiative dedicated to cultivating a love of reading in adults around the city and the young people in their lives. The program will reach DYCD provider staff via professional development training; establish “reading circles” for parents served by DYCD-funded agencies; and culminate in a large-scale citywide family reading event. Over 1,000 free books will be distributed to DYCD constituents, who often come from underserved populations.

·         People’s Theatre Project will partner with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) for Teatro Inmigrante Comunitario, an effort to build trust between community and government by amplifying shared experiences and stories. Spanish-speaking youth from Washington Heights and Kingsbridge, including many impacted by the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, will come together to create an interactive and bilingual theater event. These young people will be placed in leadership roles within their communities and, through artistic practice they will become connectors between MOIA and the populations it serves, focusing on programs such as IDNYC, ActionNYC and NYCitizenship.