New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and the speaker of the city council have announced their first budget, totaling $125.8 billion. That will include some $323.8 million for the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), its highest-ever appropriation, as part of the city’s 2027 fiscal year budget, per a report in Hyperallergic. 

That figure represents a more than 6 percent increase from last year’s allocation of $299.6 million, which was also a record.

DCLA is the largest cultural funding agency in the US, giving direct subsidies to the 39 member institutions of the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG), which includes major institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, MoMA PS1, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the American Museum of Natural History, as well as smaller and culturally specific organizations including El Museo del Barrio and the Museum of Jewish Heritage.