As arts groups across the city are worrying about seeing their federal grant money cut by the Trump administration, they now have to look nervously to their left after Mayor de Blasio yesterday threatened their funding in the name of diversity.

Looking at the board members and the demographics of the employees at the city’s cultural institutions, de Blasio said that there are too many white faces in their elite crowd.

“We want to see that each institution that is asking for public money, obviously asking for taxpayer dollars, is mindful of the fact that we think it's a real value in this city to be inclusive,’’ de Blasio said.

As The New York Times’ Robin Pogrebin points out, this is an about-face by the de Blasio administration, which declared in 2015 that it wouldn’t be playing the heavy when exploring how to make arts organizations more diverse.

“We’re not looking to be punitive,” Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl said at the time. “We don’t want a moment when a list gets published that says, ‘Here are the least and most diverse organizations.’ “

But that’s precisely the path the de Blasio administration is now taking.

And how you calculate diversity at an organization that celebrates ethnic heritage like El Museo del Barrio or the Jewish Museum is anyone’s guess.

It’s clear that many of the city’s arts organizations need to be more diverse – just as all organizations across the city need more diversity. But many museums and theaters are also opening up their doors for free to some of the poorest schoolchildren and exposing them to arts and performances that they would never ordinarily see. Some obviously do a better job at outreach than others. Will that be another factor in the mayor’s equation?

The mayor would also do arts organizations a more helpful favor if he actually made a public show of going to a museum or an opera or the theater. De Blasio yesterday admitted that he’s never been to MoMA/P.S. 1, an organization that is a huge asset to Queens and greatly helped boost the Rockaways following Hurricane Sandy.

By embracing funding through a racial headcount, de Blasio is taking an extremely complicated question and looking at it with glaring simplicity.

It’s in everyone’s interest make the city’s arts organizations better and more diverse. Threatening their funding isn’t an artful way to go about it.

 

Bob Hardt