Cultural Institutions Group
Encyclopedia
One hundred and thirty years ago, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and dedicated groups of private citizens established a new pattern of public-private partnerships that would prove to have an enormous impact on the future growth and reputation of the city. These partnerships were not for investment purposes, real estate development or industrial acquisitions. They did not involve large sums of money, nor were they heralded publicly as major new initiatives. There were only a handful of prototypes for these partnerships in the late 19th century, and today, after more than a century of expansion, there are 34 examples throughout the five boroughs of the city. The list of New York City's partners in this historic venture is a familiar one:
  • American Museum of Natural History
    American Museum of Natural History
    The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...

  • The Bronx County Historical Society
  • The Bronx Museum of the Arts
  • Brooklyn Academy of Music
    Brooklyn Academy of Music
    Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....

  • Brooklyn Botanic Garden
    Brooklyn Botanic Garden
    Brooklyn Botanic Garden is a botanical garden in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, and Park Slope neighborhoods, the garden includes a number of specialty "gardens within the Garden," plant collections, and the Steinhardt Conservatory,...

  • Brooklyn Children's Museum
    Brooklyn Children's Museum
    The Brooklyn Children's Museum is a general purpose museum in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, USA. Founded in 1899, it was the first museum in the United States and some believe, the world, to cater specifically to children and is unique in its location, predominantly a residential area...

  • Brooklyn Museum
    Brooklyn Museum
    The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....

  • Carnegie Hall
    Carnegie Hall
    Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

  • Flushing Town Hall
    Flushing Town Hall
    Flushing Town Hall is a historic Town Hall located in the Flushing section of the New York City borough of Queens. It was built in 1862 and is a 2-story, three-by-six-bay, brick building with basement and attic. A small rear wing was added in 1938 containing a block of jail cells. The front...

  • Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
    Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
    Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...

  • Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • El Museo del Barrio
    El Museo del Barrio
    El Museo del Barrio, New York’s leading Latino visual arts cultural institution, is located in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, United States, also known as El Barrio. The museum welcomes visitors of all backgrounds to discover the artistic landscape of the Latino, Caribbean, and...

  • Museum of Jewish Heritage
    Museum of Jewish Heritage
    The Museum of Jewish Heritage, located in lower Manhattan, is a living memorial to those who perished in the Holocaust. The Museum honors those who died by celebrating their lives – cherishing the traditions that they embraced, examining their achievements and faith, and affirming the vibrant...

  • Museum of the City of New York
    Museum of the City of New York
    The Museum of the City of New York is an art gallery and history museum founded in 1923 to present the history of New York City, USA and its people...

  • Museum of the Moving Image
  • The New York Botanical Garden
  • New York City Center
    New York City Center
    New York City Center is a 2,750-seat Moorish Revival theater located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It is one block south of Carnegie Hall...

  • New York Hall of Science
    New York Hall of Science
    The New York Hall of Science occupies one of the few remaining structures of the 1964 New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadow-Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City. Today, it stands as New York City's only hands-on science and technology center...

  • The New York Public Theater
  • New York State Theater:
  • New York City Ballet
    New York City Ballet
    New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...

  • New York City Opera
    New York City Opera
    The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...

  • P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center
  • Queens Botanical Garden
    Queens Botanical Garden
    The Queens Botanical Garden began as part of the 1939 New York World's Fair in Queens. After the fair, the garden expanded to take up a larger portion of Flushing Meadows Park...

  • Queens Museum of Art
    Queens Museum of Art
    The Queens Museum of Art is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, United States.-Overview:...

  • Queens Theatre in the Park
  • Snug Harbor Cultural Center
  • Staten Island Botanical Garden
    Staten Island Botanical Garden
    The Staten Island Botanical Garden is part of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, located on the north shore of Staten Island.The garden includes The New York Chinese Scholar's Garden, built in 1998....

  • Staten Island Children's Museum
    Staten Island Children's Museum
    The Staten Island Children's Museum is a children's museum on the grounds of Sailors' Snug Harbor on Staten Island, New York, opened in 1976 following community and government support for the project. The museum stresses a hands-on interactive approach to its exhibits and currently offers visitors...

  • Staten Island Historical Society
    Staten Island Historical Society
    The purpose of the Staten Island Historical Society is to create opportunities for the public to explore the diversity of the American experience, especially that of Staten Island and its neighboring communities, from the colonial period to the present day...

  • Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences
  • Staten Island Zoological Society
  • The Studio Museum in Harlem
  • Wave Hill
    Wave Hill
    Wave Hill is an estate and garden in New York.Wave Hill may also refer to:*Kalkaringi, Northern Territory, formerly known as Wave Hill, a township in the Northern Territory of Australia...

  • Wildlife Conservation Society:
  • Bronx Zoo
    Bronx Zoo
    The Bronx Zoo is located in the Bronx borough of New York City, within Bronx Park. It is the largest metropolitan zoo in the United States, comprising of park lands and naturalistic habitats, through which the Bronx River flows....

  • New York Aquarium
    New York Aquarium
    The New York Aquarium is the oldest continually operating aquarium in the United States, having opened in Castle Garden in Battery Park, Manhattan in 1896. Since 1957, it has been located on the boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The aquarium is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society as...



These private organizations comprise the cultural backbone of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. They and the city are linked through formal partnership agreements which have guaranteed a measure of public funding to the institutions. In return, the cultural organizations have produced a diverse array of public services and amassed world-famous collections ranging from rare art and specimens to endangered plants and animals.

About the CIG

The basic framework for the public-private partnerships between New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and its 34 cultural institutions was established in the 19th century. The original concept of the partnerships has succeeded beyond its founders' most ambitious expectations. And it has created a mutual dependence: New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 could not be a world-class city without the institutions, and the institutions could not survive without the city.

1877-1945: The Original Partnerships

In the last quarter of the 19th century, the City of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 began a comprehensive planning effort to cope with its rapid growth and to establish itself as a major world city. The State of New York passed legislation that incorporated the institutions and authorized the city to build facilities and lease them and the city-owned parkland on which they sat to the new private institutions. The partnership stipulated that the city would provide these institutions with land, facilities and funds for maintenance and security. The private institutions in turn would develop specialized cultural services and collections which would be available to the general public. The model married the traditions of European subsidy for the arts with American independence and capitalism. The pattern was established with the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...

 in 1877, followed by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1878; New York Botanical Garden
New York Botanical Garden
- See also :* Education in New York City* List of botanical gardens in the United States* List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City- External links :* official website** blog*...

, 1891; Bronx Zoo
Bronx Zoo
The Bronx Zoo is located in the Bronx borough of New York City, within Bronx Park. It is the largest metropolitan zoo in the United States, comprising of park lands and naturalistic habitats, through which the Bronx River flows....

, 1895; Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....

, 1897; Brooklyn Children's Museum
Brooklyn Children's Museum
The Brooklyn Children's Museum is a general purpose museum in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, USA. Founded in 1899, it was the first museum in the United States and some believe, the world, to cater specifically to children and is unique in its location, predominantly a residential area...

, 1899. After the turn of the 20th century, four additional organizations negotiated agreements with the city (Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1908; Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Brooklyn Botanic Garden is a botanical garden in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, and Park Slope neighborhoods, the garden includes a number of specialty "gardens within the Garden," plant collections, and the Steinhardt Conservatory,...

, 1909; Museum of the City of New York
Museum of the City of New York
The Museum of the City of New York is an art gallery and history museum founded in 1923 to present the history of New York City, USA and its people...

, 1922; Staten Island Zoological Society, 1936).

1945-1960: Conflict and Resolution

From 1952 to 1967, an additional five organizations would begin to receive regular city support (Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....

, 1952; Queens Botanical Garden
Queens Botanical Garden
The Queens Botanical Garden began as part of the 1939 New York World's Fair in Queens. After the fair, the garden expanded to take up a larger portion of Flushing Meadows Park...

, 1962; New York Hall of Science
New York Hall of Science
The New York Hall of Science occupies one of the few remaining structures of the 1964 New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadow-Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City. Today, it stands as New York City's only hands-on science and technology center...

, 1965; Wave Hill
Wave Hill
Wave Hill is an estate and garden in New York.Wave Hill may also refer to:*Kalkaringi, Northern Territory, formerly known as Wave Hill, a township in the Northern Territory of Australia...

, 1965; Staten Island Historical Society, 1967). In the 1950s the city and the cultural organizations engaged in protracted discussions over the issue of wages and working conditions of employees who were city reimbursed. Following a strike action against eight of the institutions in 1958 and 1959, the institutions met in 1960 in an informal organization which came to be known as the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG). The labor settlement that was eventually reached was an unconventional one that involved "tri-partite" bargaining and obligated the institutions and the City of New York to negotiate (and the city to pay for) wage and benefit increases, while working conditions were negotiated between the union and the individual organizations.

1960-1976: In Search of a Cultural Policy

Having recognized a valuable community of interests, the CIG continued to meet to address other issues. In 1962, Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. established a mayoral Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) that pre-dated the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1967, Mayor John V. Lindsay moved the OCA functions into the newly titled Department of Parks and Recreation and Cultural Affairs (PRCA). Program grants expanded considerably, and a number of newer organizations began to make the case for city operating support including Bronx County Historical Society, Bronx Museum of the Arts
Bronx Museum of the Arts
The Bronx Museum of the Arts is a cultural institution located in the New York City borough of The Bronx. The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th century works created by American artists, and it has hosted exhibitions of art and design from Latin America, Africa and Asia...

, El Museo del Barrio
El Museo del Barrio
El Museo del Barrio, New York’s leading Latino visual arts cultural institution, is located in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, United States, also known as El Barrio. The museum welcomes visitors of all backgrounds to discover the artistic landscape of the Latino, Caribbean, and...

, Jamaica Arts Center, Queens Theatre in the Park, Queens Museum of Art
Queens Museum of Art
The Queens Museum of Art is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, United States.-Overview:...

, Staten Island Childrens Museum, and the Studio Museum in Harlem
Studio Museum in Harlem
The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American contemporary art museum in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, New York. It was founded in 1968 as the first such museum in the U.S. devoted to the art of African-Americans, specializing in 19th and 20th century work as well work of artists of...

. In 1974, Mayor Abraham D. Became appointed the Committee on Cultural Policy, which recommended removing cultural affairs from PRCA and that the city concentrate its funding in the areas of facilities and basic support.

1976-1990: New Institutions, DCA and Budget Cycles

Enabling legislation for a Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) was passed in 1975, and the new department began to operate in 1976. In 1978, Mayor Edward I. Koch took office as the city began to climb out of its fiscal crisis. He agreed that the seven newer organizations and the New York State Theater should receive regular city support for operating expenses. And seven cultural organizations would also begin to receive this category of support including Snug Harbor Cultural Center, 1981; Museum of the Moving Image
Museum of the Moving Image
The Museum of the Moving Image was a museum of the history of technology and media, including cinema and its forerunners. MOMI was opened on 15 September 1988 by Prince Charles and became an instant international hit and winning 18 awards...

, 1982; Institute for Contemporary Art P.S.1, 1982; The New York Public Theater, 1982; New York City Center
New York City Center
New York City Center is a 2,750-seat Moorish Revival theater located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It is one block south of Carnegie Hall...

, 1981; Staten Island Botanical Garden
Staten Island Botanical Garden
The Staten Island Botanical Garden is part of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, located on the north shore of Staten Island.The garden includes The New York Chinese Scholar's Garden, built in 1998....

, 1983; and Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

, 1986.
A new budget scenario developed in the early 1980s and became more refined each year: the city administration recommended a budget for DCA which was less than it eventually expected to approve. Eleventh hour negotiations produced budget restorations.

DCA worked closely with the institutions to achieve increased equity and consistency in heat and energy allocations, health benefits, and pension coverage. The Mayor’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission supported and lobbied for the larger institutions in getting permission to perform major capital projects in a "pass-through" mechanism which by-passed some of the obstacles of the city bureaucracy.

1990-2006: Government Transitions and the Budget Dance

By the 1990s, two new organizations had joined the ranks of the CIG: Flushing Town Hall and the Museum of Jewish Heritage
Museum of Jewish Heritage
The Museum of Jewish Heritage, located in lower Manhattan, is a living memorial to those who perished in the Holocaust. The Museum honors those who died by celebrating their lives – cherishing the traditions that they embraced, examining their achievements and faith, and affirming the vibrant...

. With a new city charter redistributing budgeting powers from the Board of Estimate to the Mayor and a larger City Council and the implementation of term limits in 2001, the tentative pas de deux of the 1980s budget negotiations became a full-fledged ballet in the 1990s. Between 1980 and 2007, there were only two years when the proposed Executive Budget and the Adopted Budget for the Department of Cultural Affairs were the same.

2007: End of the Dance?

Admirably, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn closed the curtain on the annual budget dance on January 24, 2007 by jointly announcing a preliminary budget for 2008 that established a new base level of funding for cultural organizations. In addition, the administration brought new reforms to the city’s approach to cultural funding. The agency increased its competitive Cultural Development Fund nearly tenfold to $30 million to support non-CIG organizations. It was only appropriate that DCA support the host of cultural organizations that had developed and flourished in New York as a direct result of the city’s decision 130 years prior to invest in the cultural partnerships that became the foundation of its cultural policy.

The Original Concept

Since the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...

 entered into its historic agreement with the City of New York in 1877, the concept of public-private partnerships between the city and its 34 cultural institutions has remained elegant in its simplicity and effectiveness. The basic tenet of the relationship has consistently been that the city will provide facility and operating support, while the institutions will assemble the expertise and private funding necessary for the management of their collections, performances and public education programs. This fundamental division of responsibility has not changed in 130 years, and it has continued to produce a combination of professional excellence and institutional dedication to the public.

Measuring the Achievements

No other city in the United States, and few in the world, can boast of a group of cultural organizations that even approach the New York institutions. The CIG includes museums for children, art, "living" collections (zoos and botanical gardens), history and natural history, science, and centers for performing arts and film. The sheer scale upon which these organizations operate is phenomenal:
• 18.3 million people attend each year, including 2.3 million children.

• Collectively, the institutions (many of which are in landmarked facilities) occupy over 258 buildings, comprising over 4000000 square feet (371,612.2 m²) of exhibition space, close to 20,000 theater seats and 1100 acres (4.5 km²) of zoos and botanical gardens.

• Their operating budgets exceed $830 million, leveraging an additional $7.30 in support for every $1 provided by the city.

• Nearly 11,000 people are employed by the institutions, including 6,205 full-time and 4,559 part-time employees in positions that include curators, educators, food service workers, fundraisers, guards, janitors, marketers, and retail clerks, among many more.

The Dynamics of the Partnership

New York's position as the first city in the nation is considerably dependent on its dominance in such opinion setting and culturally-related industries as communications, media, publishing and fashion. Together with the cultural institutions, these industries form a critical mass which creates an intangible, but powerful, aura around New York. Government could not and would not accomplish this alone. The private nature of the cultural institutions is what makes the partnership work. But the partnership is a symbiotic relationship, and these private institutions could not sustain their work without the investment of the public sector.

Extraordinary Public Service and Collections

The CIG institutions include national and international leaders in their fields. Collection based institutions include international repositories for significant collections of art, rare objects, artifacts and endangered species of plants and animals. Performing arts organizations present local, national and international music, drama, and dance companies. Extensive public service programs are provided by the CIG institutions, including education programs which last year involved more than 2.3 million children. But these institutions do more than provide a resource for New York’s schoolchildren. They also generate regional, national, and international tourism to the city and generate important tax revenues.

The Future of New York’s Cultural Policy

The philosophy behind the city’s relationship with the city-funded cultural institutions is based on the premise that these institutions are public facilities established and maintained as part of DAC's Charter mandate to “plan, acquire, design, construct, improve and manage facilities for the conduct of cultural activities by the city.”
As the cultural institutions mark the 130th anniversary of their partnership with the City of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, now is the time to renew and celebrate a commitment that ensured that this city would become a global cultural destination. The future health of the cultural partnerships is a central and indispensable feature of the government’s support of the arts. A cultural policy of the City of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

does not end with its cultural institutions—it begins with them.

External links


New York State Theater:
WCS:
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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