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For Immediate Release: April 30, 2025

 

Contact: publicaffairs@culture.nyc.gov

 

NYC DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS AND AGENCY PARTNERS LAUNCH OPEN CALL FOR 2025-26 NYC PUBLIC ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE  


City Is Seeking Artists to Work Within Three Agencies, Where They Will Work Alongside Staff to Develop New Approaches to Pressing Civic Challenges  


New York City’s Next Cohort of Public Artists in Residence Will Focus on Supporting Asylum Seekers, Finding New Ways to Connect Residents to Government Services, and Better Serving Small Businesses in Immigrant Communities

 A graphic for the PAIR open call with a photo of a smiling restaurant owner.

Additional PAIR images are available here for download


New York, NY – New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) Commissioner Laurie Cumbo has announced an open call for the next round of DCLA’s Public Artists in Residence (PAIR) program. PAIR is DCLA's pioneering artist residency program which places artists-in-residence with New York City municipal agencies to address pressing civic and social challenges through creative practice. Artists and artist collectives are encouraged to apply to work with one of three agencies participating in the 2025-26 PAIR program: the Mayor's Office of Housing Recovery Operations, the Mayor's Public Engagement Unit, and the NYC Department of Small Business Services. Applications are due Monday, June 30, 2025, at 11:59PM, and the selected PAIRs will be announced later this year. The open calls are available on DCLA's Submittable page.


"New York City is the creative capital of the world, and the artists who drive that creative dynamism have the power to open our eyes to new ways of seeing the challenges our city faces," said Cultural Affairs Commissioner Laurie Cumbo. "The Public Artists in Residence program taps into artists' unique superpower, bringing creatives and public servants together to find news ways of approaching longstanding issues while engaging with New Yorkers through exciting, art-based initiatives. We're thrilled to be working with these three incredible agencies for the 2025-26 PAIR cycle, and encourage artists far and wide to apply to serve as a PAIR with us!"


The three agencies hosting 2025-26 PAIRs are seeking to address a range of issues at the core of their public service missions:


  • The Mayor's Office of Housing Recovery Operations was created in the days following Hurricane Sandy to lead housing response and recovery in New York City. The mission of HRO is to lead both post-disaster housing recovery operations and disaster recovery preparedness. Today, HRO is one of four agencies operating temporary emergency shelters for the influx of asylum seekers to New York City. In March 2023, the Mayor created the Mayor's Office of Asylum Seekers Operations (OASO) to provide oversite and coordination of support services for asylum seekers and their families. Since being activated at the start of the response, OASO has worked to address barriers to exit shelter. They established our Asylum Application Help Center to provide all eligible people in their temporary emergency shelters access to pro se assistance to apply for asylum, Temporary Protective Status, and work authorization. They also offer volunteer-run ESOL classes onsite at several shelters to help their guests address the language barrier and identify education and workforce opportunities.

 

  • The Opportunities and Challenges

Since the Spring of 2022, over 230,600 asylum seekers and migrants have arrived in NYC seeking emergency shelter. The individuals and families often came with nothing more than the clothes on their back having endured unspeakable trauma that led to their painful decision to make the journey to America. The opportunity they offer an artist in residence is to become embedded in the HRO-operated Bruckner shelter in the Bronx and introduce the healing power of art to the 2,200 single adult men alongside the services offered by OASO. They aim to provide a much-needed outlet for the clients to find ways to express their pain – and hopefully their joy in finding their way out of shelter and into stability in NYC or beyond. The challenges range from the tangible – language limitations, focus on finding work – to the trauma that may be expressed in unproductive and unpredictable ways. An ideal candidate for this residency will be an artist who has experience working with people who have been impacted by trauma. While the focus of this residency is on Bruckner shelter guests, HRO and OASO also hope to leave a loving and lasting legacy on the Bronx through collaborative artmaking.


  • The Mayor's Public Engagement Unit was created to develop a new model for government outreach, using community organizing principles to re-envision how the City provides services to its most vulnerable communities. PEU adopts grassroots tactics to meet residents where they are – at their doors and on their phones, in their social media feeds and in their communities. PEU is comprised of four teams: 1) The Tenant Support Unit provides free information on tenants' rights, assistance navigating housing-related issues, and connection to a range of resources. 2) The Home Support Unit conducts outreach to rental owners and brokers in order to identify vacant homes for voucher holders living in shelters. 3) GetCoveredNYC provides free assistance for New Yorkers seeking to enroll in health care, regardless of immigration status or income. 4) The Special Projects team works full-time to support all PEU units, while remaining flexible enough to take on the coordination of new projects based on the City's most urgent priorities.


  • The Opportunities and Challenges

Ten years after it was established, PEU is hoping to amplify the day-to-day experience of their strategic outreach initiatives while continuing to look for new ways to better connect New Yorkers to government services. They hope to bring attention to the New Yorkers who benefit from PEU programs and the dedicated civil servants at PEU who are on the streets engaging with communities across the city every day. PEU believes that greater reflection on the contemporary experience of their work will helps them to address the ongoing challenge of distrust in government, especially among immigrant communities. This distrust is due to systemic inequities, misinformation, and language barriers which prevent access to resources and services while also limiting connection between communities. PEU believes that artmaking can address these challenges by centering the diverse stories and experiences of the New Yorkers we serve who are at the heart of our work.


  • The New York City Department of Small Business Services is a vibrant, client-centered agency whose mission is to serve New York’s small businesses, jobseekers and commercial districts. SBS makes it easier for businesses in New York City to start, operate, and expand by providing direct assistance to business owners, supporting commercial districts, promoting financial and economic opportunity among minority- and women-owned businesses, preparing New Yorkers for jobs, and linking employers with a skilled and qualified workforce. SBS actively collaborates with New Yorkers, with a special focus on historically underserved neighborhoods and immigrant communities, to create programs and services tailored to their unique needs. To achieve this, SBS operates 7 Business Centers and 18 Workforce Centers across each borough, assisting entrepreneurs in connecting to resources and serving over 90,000 jobseekers annually. Additionally, SBS provides grants and services to support the growth of local Business Improvement Districts, community-based organizations, and commercial corridors


  • The Opportunities and Challenges

New York City’s immigrant communities face unique challenges, with many immigrant-owned businesses experiencing economic slowdown and decreased foot traffic, while job seekers and entrepreneurs often remain unaware of the free services available at Workforce and Business Centers. These centers, which are crucial resources for local residents, can often feel institutional and unwelcoming, while the public spaces outside them may also lack the vibrancy needed to draw people in. The Public Artists in Residence program presents a unique opportunity for an artist to be embedded in SBS’s work engaging diverse community partners to address these challenges. SBS aspires to create a seamless, engaging environment that reflects the diversity and cultural richness of the immigrant communities served across our spaces and programs. By focusing on the stories of SBS constituents to strengthen the bond between immigrant communities and the services they need. This project offers an opportunity for an artist to reimagine how public spaces and service centers work together to form inclusive, vibrant hubs that reflect the communities they serve. 


All three open calls are available in full on DCLA's Submittable page.


“PAIR has been a powerful way to support — and learn from — the incredible talent and perspective that artists bring to our communities,” said Rudy S. Giuliani, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery Operations. “We’ve seen the impact past participants have had on the offices they’ve joined, and we’re excited to welcome a new artist whose journey and work reflect the resilience and creativity that define New York.”


“The Department of Small Business Services is so excited to participate in the PAIR program for the first time in 2025,” said SBS Commissioner Dynishal Gross. “I know we'll learn a great deal from the new perspectives a resident artist will bring to our work. My hope is for a transformative impact in presenting our mission and services to job seekers, entrepreneurs, business owners and partners.”


"The Public Artist in Residence program exemplifies the transformative power of art in public service," said Adrienne Lever, Executive Director of the Public Engagement Unit. "By embedding artists within city agencies, we're not only fostering creative solutions to civic challenges but also strengthening the bond between government and the communities we serve. This initiative underscores our commitment to innovative, inclusive approaches that resonate with all New Yorkers."


“We have seen first-hand the transformative power of art in telling the stories of our newest New Yorkers and their journeys in pursuit of the American dream,” said Molly Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Asylum Seeker Operations. “We are so excited that an artist, whose experiences add to the fabric of our city, has the potential to showcase their work in a manner that informs the public of the value that both they, and their unique gifts, bring to our communities. We are ecstatic to be a part of this extraordinary platform that shepherds these very deserving artists into the collective consciousness of the city we call home."


PAIR residencies begin with a four-month research phase, during which time the artist and agency establish mutual trust through shared exposure to each other’s work and process—the artist shadows agency staff and attends meetings, trainings and site visits, and in turn the agency hosts an artist talk and visits the artist at their studio. The research phase ends with the artist proposing a project, designed in collaboration with the partner agency, to produce during the remaining months of the residency.


The implementation phase of the residency is marked by approval of the project proposal and initiation of the work. The proposed project must be collaborative in nature and include at least one public-facing event or component. Both DCLA and the partner agency will continue to provide the artist support during the project’s production for the duration of the residency.


Artists selected for PAIR receive $40,000, which covers their fee for the full length of the program along with project expenses related to their projects. PAIRs also receive desk at the partner agency, with office access based on regular building hours, and access to free materials and supplies at Materials for the Arts.


Launched in 2015, the PAIR program takes its name and inspiration from the pioneering work of artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the City’s first official artist in residence (1977), with the NYC Department of Sanitation. Since establishing the program, DCLA has embedded 24 artists in 15 agencies, including Kameron Neal at the Department of Records and Information Services, Tania Bruguera at the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya at the Commission on Human Rights, and Yazmany Arboleda at the Civic Engagement Commission. The most recent cohort of PAIRs included theater artist Modesto Flako Jimenez, who worked with the NYC Health + Hospitals' "Guns Down, Life Up" program, and Carlos Irijalba's work with the Department of Design and Construction to realize an ambitious, site-specific sculptural work as part of the East Side Costal Resiliency Project. The 2024-25 PAIRs, announced last year, are still currently working in their respective agencies. A full list of PAIRs to date is available on DCLA's website.


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About NYC Department of Cultural Affairs

The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is dedicated to supporting and strengthening New York City’s vibrant cultural life. DCLA works to promote and advocate for quality arts programming and to articulate the contribution made by the cultural community to the City’s vitality. The Department represents and serves non-profit cultural organizations involved in the visual, literary, and performing arts; public-oriented science and humanities institutions including zoos, botanical gardens, and historic and preservation societies; and creative artists at all skill levels who live and work within the City’s five boroughs. DCLA also provides donated materials for arts programs offered by the public schools and cultural and social service groups, and commissions permanent works of public art at City-funded construction projects throughout the five boroughs. For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/culture.