April 5, 2006
New York City Is Establishing an Office to Support Arts Groups
By SEWELL CHAN

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced yesterday that the city would create a
new office to "aggressively pitch New York City around the world as the
nation's art and cultural capital" by helping nonprofit organizations,
especially those in the arts, cope with the high costs that threaten their
survival.

"We won't and can't be complacent," Mr. Bloomberg said, adding that he was
determined not to cede New York's status as a world cultural center. "In the
creative sector, as in so many other areas, at one time New York City didn't
have to compete with other cities," he said at a conference at the Museum of
Modern Art that brought together 220 officials, artists, business people and
academics. "Now we do. Other cities are quickly learning the benefits of
being a creative hub."

The daunting challenges facing artists hoping to thrive in New York were
underscored by one participant at the conference, Creative New York. The
choreographer Bill T. Jones said that it was meaningless to talk about
"creative capital" without first addressing the decline in support for arts
groups and the precarious existence of individual artists.

"You don't make a damn cent in dance," he said. "So when I'm asked to be on
this panel and asked to be part of the new economic engine of New York City