The city will tie its funding for cultural organizations to the diversity of those institutions, Mayor de Blasio announced Wednesday, at a press conference where he criticized a past of “elitist” institutions only serving some New Yorkers.
“I don’t think this is exactly a news flash, that we can do better as a city in ensuring diverse audiences and a diverse workforce,” de Blasio said at the rollout of his CreateNYC plan in Long Island City. “We think this is a way to help move forward that effort.”
The mayor’s call for diversity would seem to be aimed at many of the legacy museums and organizations in the city, whose leadership and patrons are often largely white. He also outlined the importance of giving funding to smaller, outer-borough based museums — again in what would seem to be a shift away from focusing on behemoths like the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Asked whether he believed some of the city’s cultural institutions were elitist, de Blasio said some of them had been intended to be elitist — but that they’d grown more open with time. Still, there is a “semblance of elitism” at some places, he said.
“The perceived barrier is really important here,” he said. “If people don’t feel they belong in a institution of high culture, that’s almost the same as if you put a physical barrier.”
The city will consider diversity among board members and staff, as well as plans to boost diversity, as one factor in a competitive grant process that provides funding to just under 1,000 museums and organizations, the mayor and Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl said.
“The most important thing from my point of view is that each organization have a vision, a realizable vision, for inclusion, for making sure their audiences are diverse, for making sure their staff is diverse,” de Blasio said. “And sometimes that’ll take time to actualize.”
De Blasio’s relationship with the arts community, and the society world that bubbles around it, has occasionally been strained — he’s avoided the high-profile Met Gala, for example. And there were signs during the presser this could further ruffle those feathers.
Finkelpearl was introduced as the most popular commissioner — only to quip that might soon change. Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito spoke of resistance and obstruction.
“Any movement for equality and inclusion doesn’t come easily and we are going to work collaboratively with everyone. It’s not about diminishing the importance of anybody in this process,” she said, but the city needs a broader view of the arts, and some organizations may see that as a threat. “I’m not going to sit here and say we haven’t heard grumblings already from some people about what this may mean for them.”
But Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Queens), chair of the Committee on Cultural Affairs, said the city was growing the pie rather than robbing Peter to pay Paul. All the officials cautioned the mayor’s new plan wasn’t a budget document.
“By adding to the pot and by allocating the new funding in a way that is truly progressive and actually targets smaller organizations, we believe we have a framework,” Van Bramer said.
