Diya Vij appointed New York City culture commissioner

Diya Vij has been appointed commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on 28 February.

Vij, 40, currently vice president of curatorial and arts programmes at the Brooklyn nonprofit Powerhouse Arts, will succeed Laurie Cumbo, who was appointed in 2022 under Mayor Eric Adams.

The Department of Cultural Affairs is the largest municipal funder of culture in the United States, supporting around 1,000 nonprofit organisations and distributing $245m in the last fiscal year. Under Mamdani’s administration, the department will be overseen by the city’s first deputy mayor for economic justice, Julie Su.

In a statement, Mamdani described Vij as a “visionary and deeply thoughtful leader” and said her appointment would support efforts to ensure artists can afford to live and work in the city. Vij said she intended to extend the mayor’s affordability agenda to the cultural sector while improving administrative processes within the agency.

Her appointment comes as New York faces financial constraints and a changing cultural landscape. A recent preliminary budget proposal projects a $5.4bn shortfall over two years, raising the possibility of a $30m reduction to cultural affairs funding.

At the same time, rising living costs have contributed to artists leaving the city and to closures among galleries and smaller arts organisations. Federal support has also declined following the cancellation of hundreds of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2025.

Vij previously worked at the Department of Cultural Affairs between 2014 and 2019, when she was recruited by former commissioner Tom Finkelpearl. During that period, she helped launch the Public Artists in Residence programme, embedding artists within city agencies to develop projects responding to civic challenges.

She began her career at the Queens Museum and has since held roles at the High Line and Creative Time, where she led public art initiatives and revived the Creative Time Summit in 2024 after a five-year hiatus.

At Powerhouse Arts, which she joined in November, she oversaw curatorial and arts programming. Vij is the first person of South Asian heritage to lead the department.