NYC POC Led Arts Entities Launch HueArts NYC Digital Map & Directory And Call For City Fund To Close Cultural Equity Gap

The only citywide effort to bring greater cultural equity, visibility, and support to POC cultural institutions and initiatives across NYC’s five boroughs.

The launch includes a first-of-its-kind digital map and directory, and a call for leaders of NYC’s cultural community to create a $100M fund to support POC-led arts entities and to address gaps in cultural equity across the city.

Following an extensive series of surveys, interviews, and community conversations with POC arts community leaders, HueArts NYC has released “Mapping a Future for Arts Entities Founded and led by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and All People of Color in New York City,” its ‘brown paper,’ outlining the unique contributions, assets, and challenges of POC arts entities in the face of persistently limited resources and support.

The report includes six key findings, and six recommendations NYC policymakers and philanthropic leaders can take to radically shift cultural equity across the city.

“For decades POC leaders in our arts community have advocated for policy changes that would make the difference between our POC-led arts entities surviving or thriving,” said Kemi Ilesanmi, Executive Director of The Laundromat Project, a project partner of HueArts NYC. “An initiative like this is far overdue, and so is receiving the meaningful support equal to the contributions we make in keeping New York so vibrant and special.”

Accompanying the release of the brown paper is a first-of-its-kind digital map and directory spotlighting more than 400 POC arts entities serving NYC neighborhoods, and capturing critical information about the work, people, communities, and opportunities that POC arts entities offer that shape NYC’s cultural fabric and that helps fuel NYC’s creative economy.

“Having this data compiled and visualized in this way is a critical starting point for the city to understand our needs and for our communities to connect with and support each other,” said Rasmia Kirmani, Interim Executive Director at Hester Street, the HueArts NYC project partner that created the design for the map and directory, website, and brown paper. “This is the first time we are organizing together, across all five boroughs, and utilizing technology to move the conversation forward in a practical and tangible way.”

HueArts NYC has shared the findings of the HueArts NYC brown paper in a letter addressed to Mayor Eric Adams, asking for inclusion of the recommendations in his vision for the future of NYC arts and culture.

The letter to Mayor Adams, HueArts NYC Map and Directory, and the HueArts NYC ‘brown paper’ are available at hueartsnyc.org.

“So often we hear that NYC’s policymakers and philanthropic leaders can’t find or are unfamiliar with Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and all People of Color arts organizations when it’s time to make critical decisions that impact our present and future. HueArts NYC changes that,” said Stephanie A. Johnson-Cunningham, Executive Director of Museum Hue, also a HueArts NYC project partner. “Now, we have a platform that centers our arts organizations’ contributions to the city’s arts landscape and creative economy, a map of where we are in every community, and clear recommendations to address our needs. This will help our city’s political, philanthropic, and cultural leaders increase collaboration and financial support for our arts organizations and will have a measurable impact on neighborhoods in all five boroughs.”

NYC arts organizations are invited to submit their information to the HueArts NYC Map and Directory.

Entities are chosen according to criteria that ensure featured organizations are founded by, led by, and directly serving Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and all people of color. The map and directory will be updated bi-annually.

“When you consider how much money disproportionately goes to NYC’s predominately white institutions compared to the creative outputs by people of color and our community organizations, you get a better understanding of why our institutions sometimes fail to thrive,” said Libertad O. Guerra, Executive Director of the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center and HueArts NYC Advisory Committee member. “It’s not from lack of effort, it’s due to lack of support. HueArts NYC is our effort to make sure all of NYC understands where we are, what we do, and how they can support us. Whether that is coming through the door, sharing information about our work on social media, or proposing a policy that will level the playing field in ways that will make a real difference for our POC entities, artists, cultural workers, and communities of color.”

Key findings of the HueArts NYC brown paper include:

1. POC arts entities are deeply embedded in their communities, and often relied upon to provide more than just arts programming.
2. POC arts entities are often connected to a sense of place and neighborhood, but rarely have a truly stable space of their own.
3. POC arts entities are resourceful and resilient in the face of a long history of structural racism, chronic under-investment, and limited financial support.
4. The dearth of data and metrics on POC arts entities in NYC is significant and remarkable, creating barriers to truly comprehensive field knowledge, visibility, and impact.
5. Increased staff capacity and ability to support artists are urgent and fundamental priorities for POC arts entities.
6. POC arts entities face extra layers of challenges to secure adequate funding in comparison to predominantly white-led arts institutions.