Arts & Culture

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LaGuardia Community College Gets $4M for Arts Upgrades

LaGuardia Community College has received $4 million in New York City capital funding to renovate and modernize its arts and media facilities in Queens. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. and City Council Member Julie Won each allocated $2 million toward the project, which is expected to leverage matching New York State funding and generate approximately $8 million in total investment. Planned improvements include upgrades to theaters, television production facilities, student learning spaces, production labs and dressing rooms. The project will also modernize lighting, electrical, communications, HVAC and other building systems while improving accessibility. The investment will support students studying theater, film and television, and music performance while strengthening the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center as a cultural destination in western Queens.

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NYC Begins $17.8M Brooklyn Music School Renovation

New York City has started a $17.8 million renovation of a historic Cobble Hill firehouse that will become the first permanent home of the Noel Pointer Foundation. The 6,000-square-foot building at 299 DeGraw Street, originally constructed in 1857, will be transformed into a modern music education facility with soundproofed lesson rooms, a recording studio, music library, gallery, ensemble space and courtyard. The foundation provides music education and performance opportunities to young people across the five boroughs and currently serves more than 2,000 children annually. Its new Brooklyn headquarters will support expanded after-school, weekend and summer programs while restoring significant elements of the former Engine Company 204 firehouse. Construction is expected to be completed in fall 2028.

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ComicConnect Heads to NY Comic Con Oct. 8-11

ComicConnect and Metropolis Collectibles will bring rare comics, original comic book art and high-end collectibles to New York Comic Con, Oct. 8-11 at the Javits Center in Manhattan.

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NYC Artists Can Now Apply for Grants Up to $10,000

New York City is doubling the maximum amount available through city-funded grants for individual artists and small nonprofits, increasing awards from $5,000 to as much as $10,000 for the first time in nearly two decades. The Department of Cultural Affairs provides the funding through local partners in each borough, supporting filmmakers, musicians, dancers, writers, painters and other creative professionals. Applications are currently open in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens, while Staten Island's application cycle will begin in November. The city is also expanding support through Materials for the Arts, giving current artist grantees dedicated opportunities to obtain free supplies. Eligibility requirements and application deadlines vary by borough.

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Studio Museum in Harlem Opens New Exhibitions

The Studio Museum in Harlem has opened the final exhibitions of the inaugural year in its new West 125th Street building. A sustained becoming: Studio Museum Artists in Residence 2026 presents new work by Derriann Pharr, Simonette Quamina and Taylor Simmons, the first Artist-in-Residence cohort to work from studios in the Museum's purpose-built home. A second exhibition, Tone, brings together paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures exploring tonal variation as an artistic language. The exhibitions join several recently opened presentations from the Museum's collection and other artists. Looking ahead to 2027, the Studio Museum will present solo exhibitions featuring Woody De Othello and Jamaican-born artist Mavis Pusey.

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NYU Gets $525K Gift for Chinese Diasporic Art Study

New York University's Institute of Fine Arts has received a $525,000 gift from Asymmetry to establish a new academic initiative focused on Chinese and Sinophone diasporic art. The partnership will support two PhD fellowships for research examining how migration, cultural exchange and the movement of artists and ideas have influenced visual culture across different regions. Fellows will also have opportunities to conduct collections and archival research through the Institute's network of New York museums and cultural organizations. The initiative will include an annual symposium bringing together researchers, curators, students and other specialists to examine Chinese and Sinophone diasporas through comparative perspectives. Asymmetry, a London-based nonprofit founded in 2020, will also connect the fellows with its international academic and cultural network.

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Bowery Presents Announces Major Leadership Change

The Bowery Presents is undergoing a major leadership transition as longtime co-presidents Jim Glancy and John Moore step aside from the New York-based concert promotion company. Four longtime executives—Josh Bhatti, Charley Magrew, Andrew Martin and Josh Moore—have been elevated to senior vice president and will collectively assume leadership responsibilities. Magrew will oversee marketing, ticketing, sponsorship and venue initiatives from New York, while Moore will lead talent operations from the city. Martin will oversee business and legal affairs from Nashville, and Bhatti will lead the company's New England operations. The Bowery Presents, which became part of AEG Presents in 2016, has played a major role in New York's live music industry and produces concerts at several prominent NYC venues.

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Brooklyn Unveils Little Panama Way in Crown Heights

Brooklyn's Panamanian community has received permanent recognition in Crown Heights with the unveiling of Little Panama Way along Franklin Avenue. The ceremonial street co-naming honors generations of Panamanians who established families, businesses, institutions and cultural traditions in the neighborhood beginning decades ago. Panama 507 Roundtable Group organized the September 24 celebration with community organizations, elected officials and Panamanian dignitaries. The recognition comes as a related effort advances to establish a Little Panama Cultural District in the area, creating a framework for preserving Panamanian heritage while supporting cultural programming and economic activity. State legislation authorizing the cultural designation has passed both houses of the New York State Legislature

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Hyundai AI Art Exhibition Opens at NYC’s New Museum

Hyundai Motor Company is launching a new contemporary art exhibition at New York City’s New Museum featuring newly commissioned work from Singapore-based artist Ho Tzu Nyen. Opening September 24 on the Bowery, the exhibition includes P for Power: Up Down, an installation that uses artificial intelligence to generate changing image sequences on screens inside the museum’s glass-front elevators. The exhibition launches a three-year collaboration between the New Museum and South Korea’s Ulsan Art Museum through the Hyundai Translocal Series. The two institutions will develop three annual exhibitions through 2028, combining site-specific commissions with explorations of art, technology and cultural identity. Ho’s New York exhibition runs through January 24, 2027.