Mayor Eric Adams appointed former City Council Member Laurie Cumbo as commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA).
Cumbo will direct cultural policy for the city and oversee city funding for hundreds of nonprofit arts and cultural organizations across the five boroughs that deliver quality arts programming for New Yorkers. Additionally, she will advise on strategies for equitably supporting and strengthening the city’s diverse cultural community, which is essential to New York’s status as a global capital leader and makes major contributions to the city’s economic vitality and social well-being.
DCLA represents and serves nonprofit cultural organizations involved in the visual, literary, and performing arts; public-oriented science and humanities institutions including zoos, botanical gardens, and historical and preservation societies; and creative artists at all skill levels who live and work within the city’s five boroughs. The agency provides hundreds of millions of dollars in expense and capital funding to more than 1,000 cultural nonprofits each year. Additionally, the agency commissions permanent public artwork and provides free materials to public schools, nonprofits, and city agencies with arts programming.