New York City is home to nearly 200 museums, around 1,000 art spaces and almost 300,000 people people employed in the creative sector. This autumn, the city is electing a new mayor, a role that holds massive power over not just municipal policies but New York’s public image. Is it a city where artists can reap the benefits of the many local opportunities and make a living, or is it fated to be known as a city where renting a studio apartment can cost upwards of $3,000 per month but wages remain stubbornly low? Though arts funding has not figured prominently in Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa’s respective mayoral campaigns, issues like housing affordability, public safety and minimum wage affect artists’ ability to live and work in New York.
The mayoral election does directly impact the arts, too. The politician who occupies Gracie Mansion has a say in deciding the funding levels of the Department of Cultural Affairs—its annual expense budget averages around $200m and its capital budget for the next four years tops $1bn —and the commissioner who will lead the agency. Anyone concerned about the creative sector in New York should pay close attention to each candidate’s track record on the arts.
Andrew Cuomo
Toward the end of Andrew Cuomo’s tenure as governor of New York state (2011-21), he made $105m in grants available to artists and arts organisations through the New York State Council on the Arts. Much of this funding focused on “restarting” New York’s arts sector in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Four years out, the full effects of this funding remain to be seen, but it included funding for both individual artists and non-profit organisations to “strengthen and reinvigorate our state’s creative economy”. (One of the biggest scandals of Cuomo’s time as governor involved revelations that his administration had severely undercounted the number of deaths at nursing homes at the height of the pandemic.)
Cuomo also oversaw the overhaul of the outdated and cramped LaGuardia Airport in Queens, which now prominently features site-specific public art commissions throughout its terminals. The airport is now home to works by Sarah Sze, Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, Chris Bogia and Olaf Breuning, commissioned in collaboration with the Public Art Fund.
Cuomo has also received financial support from powerful figures in the art world, including the outgoing New Museum director Lisa Phillips, the art dealer Vito Schnabel and Micol Spinazzi Richter, a director at Gagosian in New York.
Cuomo has not made any public statements about arts funding during his campaign and spokespersons did not respond to The Art Newspaper’s inquiries. However, his campaign’s website expresses support for more affordable public transit, healthcare and housing, issues affecting the cost of living for artists and arts workers (and most New Yorkers).
“Our city has always been expensive, but today it is rapidly becoming unaffordable for millions of hard-working New Yorkers at all income levels,” a section on his campaign’s website section about affordability states. A Cuomo-led City Hall, the site continues, would work to “enhance enforcement of rent-stabilisation laws to prevent illegal rent hikes and landlord harassment [and to] ensure that every tenant facing eviction has counsel in housing court to reduce evictions that result in homelessness”.
Cuomo is running as an independent after losing last summer’s Democratic primary; in the second round of the city’s rank-choice voting system, he finished nearly 13% behind Zohran Mamdani. Cuomo resigned from his previous role as New York’s governor after 13 women accused him of sexual harassment.
Zohran Mamdani
The Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and state assemblyman representing parts of Queens, is the son of the acclaimed film-maker Mira Nair and the husband of ceramist and animator Rama Duwaji. He is also the subject of a painting by Salman Toor.
Mamdani has expressed interest in making New York affordable for artists. Of the three frontrunners, Mamdani has made the most efforts to speak to the cultural sector in New York and seek support from arts organisations. His campaign spokespersons did not respond to The Art Newspaper’s requests for comment but have made a number of public statements on cultural issues.
In a Facebook post announcing an endorsement from Local 802 AFM, a union representing musicians in New York, the Mamdani campaign wrote: “Art can’t just be a luxury for the few. That requires a city where artists can actually afford to live and create, and where musicians don’t just receive recognition but fair pay.”
Mamdani was previously a musician, recording as Mr Cardamom and working as a music supervisor on his mother’s film Queen of Katwe (2016). He said in an interview with Vanity Fair last March: “I think, ultimately, politics and art—there’s a commonality in the act of storytelling.”
Mamdani has received endorsements from the Actors’ Equity Association and donations from Museum of the Moving Image executive director Aziz Isham and Lannon Foundation executive director Branda Coughlin. Many of Mamdani’s campaign donations have been in increments of $100 or under, and publicly available data from the New York City Campaign Finance Board lists many self-employed artists, writers and designers who have given $50 to $100 to his campaign.
Curtis Sliwa
The Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, founder of the citizen-led security group Guardian Angels, has leaned heavily into public safety and big business in his campaign. But he has distinguished himself from the other candidates by making repeated statements about the value of arts education. The New York City public school system is complex and massive, and allocating funding for arts education bolsters the next generation of artists in the city.
In a May 2025 roundtable on arts education, Sliwa stressed the importance of arts education at an early age. “Arts can be an amazing galvanising force for children in the educational setting because it allows expression in an open format with no parameters,” Sliwa said. “In response to unprecedented truancy rates, I believe a revival of the arts in schools will provide a medium for children to be more motivated to attend school.”
Sliwa also stated: “To further expand access, the city should fund after-school and summer programmes that introduce students to the vibrancy of the arts and provide hands-on experiences in disciplines such as visual arts, theatre, music, dance and digital media.” Sliwa’s campaign has otherwise not made any specific statements about the arts and spokespersons for his campaign did not respond to The Art Newspaper’s inquiries. His campaign website promises to “make New York City the most competitive urban economy in the world” for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Sliwa, Mamdani and Cuomo are running to succeed the current mayor, Eric Adams, who dropped his re-election bid last month amid low polls. On Thursday, Adams endorsed Cuomo, whom he had previously described as a “snake and a liar”. Early voting in New York City’s general election runs from 25 October to 2 November; election day is 4 November.
