NYC Cultural Funding Overhaul: A Review

Kate Taylor in the Sun has an excellent review of the ins and outs of the new arts funding disbursement policies devised by Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council.

Whatever objections one can still raise, it's notable that arts and culture institutions big and small are happy. The main reason, it seems, is it's relieving them of much of the sheer hassle of lobbying! Buzz words like "competitive bidding" and "peer review" are also garnering applause.

Still, it seems to me this is just helping a deeply unsatisfying and compromised system of pseudo state arts-sponsorship work a little less annoyingly.

Note the distinctions in the plan, by the way, between members of the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) and everyone else. What separates CIG companies is that they are on city-owned property. Not a lot of theatres qualify as that. BAM is mentioned. But is Lincoln Center? (Anyone?)