Chair Williams frames CreateNYC oversight questions
Chair asks whether CreateNYC lived up to its promise of cultural equity, noting artists struggle with affordability, small organizations fight to stay open, and communities face barriers to funding and resources.
Finally, let me turn to the topic of our oversight hearing, what's next for Create NYC.
As everyone in this room knows, New York City is the cultural capital of the world, not by accident, but because generations of creative visionaries have made this city their home.
From Broadway to the Bronx, from world-renowned museums to neighborhood theaters, community art,
art centers, and grassroots cultural institutions, our city's creative spirit is woven into the fabric of who we are.
In 2017, in an attempt to develop a comprehensive citywide cultural plan worthy of its peerless cultural community,
New York City adopted Create New York City with a bold promise that the arts would not be a privilege reserved for a select few, but a public good accessible to every New Yorker in every borough and in every neighborhood.
Nearly a decade later, that law that established Create NYC gives us an opportunity to reexamine the plan.
So the time has come for us to ask a fundamental question.
Has Create NYC lived up to its promise?
Because while New York City's cultural institutions continue to inspire the world, the people who make our city extraordinary are facing extraordinary challenges.
Artists are struggling to afford the neighborhoods they help shape.
Small cultural organizations are fighting to keep their doors open, and too many communities still face barriers to the funding, resources, and opportunities that allow arts and culture to thrive.
Cultural equity cannot simply be a phrase in a planning document or a promise made at a press conference.
It must be reflected in where we invest, whose voices we elevate, whose stories we tell, and who gets to participate in the cultural life of our city.
Today's hearing is an opportunity to examine what Create NYC has accomplished, where it has fallen short, and whether
whether the city has established the accountability and measurable outcomes necessary to revamp the city's cultural plan and turn it from a bold vision into lasting change.