SUPPORTING CULTURE AND THE CREATION OF A NEW ARTS DISTRICT

The Brooklyn Cultural District is home to approximately 70 diverse cultural groups stretching across Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The core centers on a four-block stretch on the border of Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene that is a result of a 40-year joint effort by New York City officials and local arts organizations to revive what was once Brooklyn’s entertainment and cultural capital. 

In order to help protect the area’s identity in the midst of a significant development boom, while at the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, we collaborated with the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance to create Culture Forward, a roadmap to secure the future of culture in Downtown Brooklyn. The year-long collaborative effort engaged over 100 stakeholders including residents, cultural organizations, government agencies, local business, real estate, and other not-for-profit entities in a series of planning sessions to create an operational framework to guide its future growth, including economic analysis which revealed the district's staggering impact of $310 million annually. 

The plan comprises a series of 13 initiatives that includes giving artists access to affordable work spaces and housing, developing fellowships, linking areas through public art and raising money for a cultural investment fund. This ultimately led to our work to create a business improvement district to manage the area's assets and identity.