New York City has been innovating arts and culture at least since Tin Pan Alley songwriters were cranking out baseball theme songs, but in recent years—since the 1980s, some might say—there's been an inherent tension between the high cost of living and the ability of artists across disciplines to afford the time, space, and economic resources to do the innovating. As rents have risen across the boroughs, and as neighborhoods formerly occupied by artists have flipped into luxury boutiques and high-rise condos, the city has seen many of its true creatives get squeezed out and its DIY spaces get paved over.
It's in this long-suffering landscape that Diya Vij, the City's newest Commissioner for the City's Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), has assumed her new seat, having been appointed to the position in February by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Vij, 40, has spent her already-storied career imagining the way arts intersect with public life, having worked as a curator at such institutions as Powerhouse Arts, Creative Time, the Queens Museum, the High Line, as well as at Former Mayor De Blasio's DCLA, where she worked on special projects to shore up the ways the City could more equitably interact with artists and the public. On Tuesday night at Performance Space New York in the East Village, Vij held one of a series of public conversations with cultural workers, artists, and members of the community for a dialogue on what a city built for artists can look like—meant to be "an open conversation between artists and City Hall"—with more to be announced.
Though Vij has only been leading DCLA for a few months, she told Hell Gate that what she's most excited about thus far is having the opportunity to engage with the public. "There's just more people interested in city government than I've ever seen," she said. "My dream is that New Yorkers start talking about arts and culture the same way they're talking about potholes being filled—like it's an essential part of our infrastructure, and it's everywhere, and where it isn't, it should be. That is the kind of equity lens, too, that's important for us to take when we think about art as an infrastructural investment."
Hell Gate spoke with Vij over the phone last week about her plans for the future, public art she loves in the city, and what she likes to get up to after hours.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Hell Gate: What's proving beneficial to your job so far that you've learned in the other cultural institutions where you've been?
Diya Vij: Great question. For the past three months, I've been introducing myself to different stakeholders in the field, from artists to cultural workers, organizational leaders and board members in other City agencies, and union leaders. I always say that I arrived at this job as a cultural worker, which is true. I was at the Department of Cultural Affairs about 10 years ago as a more junior employee working in the commissioner's unit, and before then, I was at the Queens Museum. Since then, I've been a curator of public art of various organizations across the city, and that means that I still know in my body what it feels like to be working your way up through the ladder.