The Academy of American Poets is one of 1,000+ cultural organizations across NYC to receive support as part of the City's largest-ever $58 million Cultural Development Fund
New York, NY (December 21, 2022)—The Academy of American Poets is pleased to announce that it has received an award of $84,180 from the City of New York. This comes as part of New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) Commissioner Laurie Cumbo's recent announcement of over $58 million in Cultural Development Fund (CDF) grants to 1,070 cultural organizations across the five boroughs. For the Academy, this CDF grant will support the free programs and publications the organization produces for thousands of poets, readers, and teachers across New York City.
“We’re grateful to the DCLA Commissioner Cumbo for her leadership in increasing support for poetry and the literary arts, which have helped define New York City,” said Academy of American Poets President & Executive Director Jennifer Benka. “The Academy looks forward to sharing poems with and hosting events for New Yorkers, and continuing to champion and celebrate our city’s poets—especially now.”
“Throughout our city, we have a multitude of diverse cultural organizations that reflect the rich history of New Yorkers that have been hidden for too long,” said Mayor Adams. “This administration believes in uplifting these cultural groups with our words and our dollars. By utilizing equity reforms, we are spreading the investments to not only our well-known cultural organizations, but to this city’s smaller, local, and more diverse groups that reflect the histories of all New Yorkers. No matter in what borough, New Yorkers can learn about some of the unique cultures in their own backyards or in locations across the city. I am proud to support and invest in our cultural groups to ensure we are all connected as one.”
“Our arts and cultural organizations are ‘Getting Art Done’ in every corner of our city, for every community in our city,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development Maria Torres Springer. “We’re so thrilled to make this historic investment in the nonprofit arts groups that bring joy and create opportunities for reflection and connection. The thoughtful, far-reaching reforms that we’re rolling out this year have helped make sure this public support truly serves the public and lifts up artists and cultural groups across the five boroughs.”
“Culture is the bedrock of our communities and an integral part of who we are as a city,” said DCLA Commissioner Cumbo. “We are honored to invest this historic funding in New York’s vast and vibrant nonprofit cultural community. With the competitive process returning for the first time since the pandemic, hundreds of new groups had the opportunity to apply, and the result is the largest number of grantees in agency history. Our ongoing reform process helped advance first-time grantees, smaller organizations, and those led by people of color — a big first step in fostering greater equity. We’ll continue to work with our cultural community in the months ahead to ensure that our support reaches every corner of New York City in a fair, equitable way and continues to move our city forward.”
For this year’s CDF process, DCLA introduced a series of equity reforms dedicated to identifying and reducing biases in the grantmaking process, and saw the return of the competitive, peer-panel review process for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a record investment from the Adams administration and the City Council, DCLA awarded the most funding to the largest number of cultural organizations ever, marked by major boosts for smaller groups and organizations led by people of color, as well as an increase in the number of groups receiving city support for the first time. The CDF awards also continue to invest in priorities like language and disability access, as well as individual artists, and includes an infusion of funds from Mayor Adams’ “Blueprint for New York City’s Economic Recovery.”
Learn more and find a full list of this year's CDF grantees in the City's official press release.
About the Academy of American Poets
Founded in 1934, the Academy of American Poets is the nation’s leading champion of poets and poetry with supporters in all fifty states and beyond. The organization annually awards $1.3+ million to more than two hundred poets at various stages of their careers through its prize and fellowship programs. The organization also produces Poets.org, the world’s largest publicly funded website for poets and poetry; established and organizes National Poetry Month each April; publishes the popular Poem-a-Day series and American Poets magazine; provides free resources to K–12 educators, including the award-winning weekly Teach This Poem series; hosts an annual series of poetry readings, and special events; and coordinates a national Poetry Coalition that promotes the value poets bring to our culture