The Manhattan borough president’s office announced on Tuesday that it is spending its $50 million discretionary budget on renovation projects inside local museums, arts education in public schools and other cultural initiatives.
In previous years, the discretionary budget has been divided into small grants that flow across sectors like the arts, public housing, social services and parks. The borough’s current president, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, said that his decision to commit the entire allocation to cultural programming was partly inspired by President Trump’s threats to cut federal funding for the arts.
“I know the importance of arts and culture to our society, to the economy and to future generations of Manhattanites and New Yorkers,” Hoylman-Sigal said in a phone interview. “We think this is a boost of morale for the sector.”
Fifty-five cultural institutions and 28 schools will benefit from grants ranging from $60,000 to $2 million. The Metropolitan Opera, for example, will receive $500,000 to update its fly system that hoists and lowers scenery onto the stage. The Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts will receive just as much to update art spaces that haven’t been renovated in 40 years.
Other groups to receive funding include the Center for Jewish History, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Museum of Chinese in America, Roundabout Theater Company and the Juilliard School.
“Getting extra support from grants like this is a vote of confidence,” said Casey York, managing director of Playwrights Horizons, which received $250,000 to build a backstage elevator for accessibility. Receiving this portion of the elevator’s estimated $1.5 million budget from the city will help convince other organizations to fund the remainder of the project, York said.
Hoylman-Sigal is calling the program “Manhattan Multiplier,” because the grants are meant to encourage matching donations. So far, recipients have raised nearly $12 million based on the city’s initial investments. The borough president said that Manhattan is at a disadvantage when it comes to citywide discretionary funds because the money is allocated through the City Charter to take into account nighttime population and land mass. That leaves Manhattan with a discretionary budget roughly equal to that of Staten Island, while Brooklyn receives $99.3 million and Queens receives $115.1 million. The Bronx receives $55.7 million.
One of the largest grantees in the borough president’s discretionary budget is the American Museum of Natural History, which would receive $2 million to renovate its Pacific Birds Hall, which had hosted the institution’s popular butterfly vivarium until curators relocated that exhibition to the Richard Gilder Center area that opened in 2023. Officials said the bird display hasn’t been on full view since the 1990s.
Sean M. Decatur, the museum president, said that the grant “will help us share with visitors a beautiful hidden gem of an exhibition gallery, which will be fully updated to include stories about the ways habitat loss and climate change affect biodiversity.”
A spokeswoman said that the birds hall was still in the early stages of planning, and curators had not set a final budget or opening date.
Hoylman-Sigal also said the grants would show potential donors and philanthropic organizations that the city is interested in seeing its arts organizations thrive.
“Uncertainty is what can send the sector into a tailspin because mounting an exhibition can take years to plan,” he said. “We are hoping to provide some stability.”
The post Manhattan Borough President Gives $50 Million to N.Y.C. Arts Groups appeared first on New York Times.
