After a Five-Year Term, Tom Finkelpearl Is Out as New York City’s Commissioner of Cultural Affairs

After five years on the job, New
York City’s Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Tom Finkelpearl is
leaving his post. The news was announced in a press release on
Thursday morning, with a brief statement from mayor Bill de Blasio:
“Tom has done a remarkable job in creating a more equitable and
accessible cultural sector… he has touched the lives of millions of
New Yorkers.” The reasons for the departure were not
explained. 

Prior to signing on to the de
Blasio administration in 2014, Finkelpearl had served as the
director of the Queens Museum for more than a decade, where was
known for his focus on community engagement. Soon after he took over
as culture czar, his
department launched CultureAID to address the role of arts and
cultural organizations in providing relief to the city in the wake
of Superstorm Sandy.

Among his signature achievements
was the launch of the IDNYC program. The popular city-issued ID
provides benefits at 40 New York cultural attractions, including
the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum, but also
doubles as a form of needed ID for undocumented people. “The idea
of attaching these fantastic cultural benefits to the card was to
say everybody in New York needs to want this card,” he told WNYC in
2016. “So it’s not that ‘Hi, I’m undocumented, here’s my ID
card.’”

Finkelpearl also spearheaded the
city’s first-ever study of the diversity of New York cultural
institutions and the city’s first-ever Cultural Plan. Based on
meetings drawing some 200,000 community members, artists, art
administrators, and business owners around the city and unveiled in
2017, the CreateNYC plan set sweeping goals of addressing issues
affecting the cultural economy, including gentrification,
inclusivity, and accessibility. It was criticized both
by
activists for being
merely symbolic and by museum officials who resisted the idea that
their future funding might be tied to diversity
goals. 

A streamlined version
of the plan released earlier this year pared down the 90-plus points of the original
plan to five overarching action objectives. The Department of
Cultural Affairs—which remains among the country’s largest cultural
funders, with an annual budget significantly greater than the
National Endowment for the Arts—released a robust $212 million
budget for 2020, a marked increase from last year’s at $198.4
million. 

Finkelpearl’s tenure was also
marked by sharp debates over controversial public monuments. His
departure comes just weeks after the conclusion of a public
commission that pitted the city’s expert panel against local
activists over a sculpture to replace an East Harlem monument to
the doctor J. Marion Sims, who despite being called the “father of
modern gynecology,” repeatedly performed surgery on enslaved
patients without using anesthesia. 

The panel selected a proposal by
Simone Leigh, who has had a slew of high profile exhibitions at the
Guggenheim, the Whitney Museum, and on the High Line. Members of
the community protested the decision, arguing that the process had
been rigged in favor of the art world, pushing for the commission
to be awarded to Yonkers-based artist Vinnie Bagwell. Finkelpearl
was forced to downplay the role of the expert panel, saying that
its role was merely advisory. Ultimately Leigh withdrew her
proposal.

In 2015, Finkelpearl had
previously taken a leave of absence from his position when he was
diagnosed with lymphoma. There was no indication in the new
announcement that the fresh departure was health
related. 

In an email to artnet News, Diya
Vij, the associate curator of public programs at the High Line and
former special projects manager for the Cultural Affairs
Department, praised Finkelpearl’s progressive ideals. “His vision
for cultural equity, workforce diversity, and the integration of
art into civic life broadly and deeply has led to the largest
cultural budget New York City has ever seen, and it’s rooted in an
agenda that seeks justice…. I know this is a major loss for many in
the cultural community, but I am confident that Tom laid important
groundwork for the city to continue to build
from.” 

Representatives for the NYCA did
not provide any additional detail. 

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New York City’s Commissioner of Cultural Affairs appeared first
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