Mauricio Delfin proposes separating DCLA capacity plan from shared cultural agenda

Good morning, Deputy Speaker Williams and members of the committee.

My name is Mauricio Delfin, and I co-direct the Culture and Arts Policy Institute with Gonzalo Casals.

My testimony continues the testimonies on Create NYC and makes one argument.

The city's next step regarding cultural plans should be to separate what DCLA can deliver on its own from what many actors must agree on and deliver together.

Create NYC, the city's first legally mandated cultural plan, was shaped by more than 188,000 New Yorkers and addressed the full range of the city's cultural life.

Yet DCLA was its primary implementer and sole reporter, and those reports stopped being published after 2019, as we have discussed.

The lesson from Create NYC, we believe, is that an agency plan and a sector-wide agenda are different instruments, and it was asked to be both.

An agency plan depends on one agency's budget, staff, and capacity.

A sector-wide agenda depends on many actors, DCLA and other city agencies, the council, nonprofit and civic organizations, philanthropy, the private sector, partners in education and health, artists, and communities.

So when DCLA reporting stopped, no other actor had the mandate or data to keep the work visible.

We therefore propose that the city develop two instruments, one for each role.

One, a capacity building plan for DCLA, and two, a shared agenda for cultural policy in New York City.

The capacity building plan should begin with an assessment of DCLA today.

with civic participation built in, how the agency collects data, evaluates its programs, and reports to the public.

The assessment would identify the agency's capacity gaps and tell the council what to fund to close them.

That capacity will let the agency evaluate the programs it funds today, so funding decisions rest on evidence of what works.

A shared agenda for cultural policy convened by DCLA and the Council is a set of policy priorities these actors agree on, with mechanisms to carry them out, such as shared indicators and regular public reporting.

It also requires standing spaces for them to meet, divide responsibilities, and review progress.

Each actor would be accountable for its part, and reporting would show who is delivering so the work continues when what falters or an administration changes.

We urge the committee to require DCLA to develop a capacity building plan starting with an assessment of its current capacity and to support a shared agenda for cultural policy in New York City.

Thank you.