Thank Your City Council Reps for Supporting Arts & Culture Funding in the FY25 Budget

The New York City Council released its response to Mayor Adam’s preliminary budget earlier this month, urging the Mayor to reverse the harmful cuts to arts and culture organizations and increase cultural funding overall. As part of their demand for a restoration of cuts from the Mayor's Financial Plan and Preliminary Budget, the Council is asking for:

• Restoring and Baselining Cultural Funding – The Council proposes $55.5 million to restore and baseline the $40 million that was allocated to the Department of Cultural Affairs in FY24 and restore the $15.5 million that was cut in November and January.
• Replacing Expiring Federal Stimulus Funds – The Council is seeking $550 million in city funds to replace COVID stimulus funds that have supported vital school and student support programs like community schools, pre-school special education, and more.
• Supporting Early Childhood Education, restoring funding and baselining library funding and placing a certified arts teacher in every school, among other requests.

What this means:
The proposed restoration and baselining of cultural funding, along with the recommendation to enhance arts education and support community engagement programs, could significantly benefit dance workers and organizations leading to more stability in city funding for the arts and arts education, more potential employment opportunities, and ultimately greater community involvement—bolstering the role of dance workers in the cultural landscape of New York City.

What you can do:
As the Mayor's Executive Budget is released later this month, additional budget hearings will be held by the City Council in May. Use New Yorkers for Culture & Arts’ one-click email template to contact your City Council representatives to express gratitude for their hard work in advocating for the reversal of last year's damaging budget cuts and to increase cultural funding.
 

CONTACT YOUR CITY COUNCIL REP

• Review the City Council’s full preliminary budget response
• Check out the City Council’s press release on their Preliminary Budget