Laurie Cumbo, who was appointed commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs by Mayor Eric Adams last week, was working as an intern at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the age of 15. In 1999, she founded the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, in a brownstone in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. And when she was a member of the city council, she was a member of the cultural affairs committee.
She has also caused insults over the years. In 2013, in the wake of attacks on Jewish residents in Brooklyn, she wrote that many African American and Caribbean residents feared being “pushed out by their Jewish landlords.” And in 2015, she faced criticism after asking why the New York City Housing Authority was moving so many Asian Americans into social housing in Brooklyn. (She apologized for both incidents.) More recently, she insulted immigration advocates by opposing a bill that would allow non-citizens to vote.
With Ms Cumbo taking the helm of the Cultural Affairs department at a delicate moment — with the arts sector still struggling to get out of the pandemic and her predecessor at the department warning the agency is in trouble — people in the field her background and try to gauge what kind of leader she will be.
“Our city deserves at the very least a cultural leader with deep respect for backgrounds and perspectives that enrich our world,” said Reynold Levy, the former president of Lincoln Center and an expert on nonprofit organizations. “Does Laurie Cumbo pass these simple, basic tests?”
Asked about some of her past statements, Ms Cumbo replied in an email that she had “spent my professional life building coalitions”.
“I strongly believe in the democratic process and in the beauty and solidarity of New York’s wealthy, diverse communities, and in the power of art and open dialogue to bring us together,” she wrote. “As a commissioner, I will continue to work, learn and grow with the communities to which I have devoted my life.”
Mayor Adams said Ms Cumbo brings “broad experience in the arts, community advocacy and city government to her role as a commissioner” in the statement announcing her appointment.
Ms Cumbo, for her part, pledged to “be laser-focused to help our city’s cultural sector and cultural nonprofits recover from the effects of the pandemic.”
“Our art community,” she said in the email, “and colored art groups in particular have been severely damaged by the pandemic.”
Ms. Cumbo, a former Majority Leader on the City Council, grew up in Brooklyn and graduated with a degree in art history from Spelman College and a master’s degree in visual art administration from New York University. She has taught the arts and culture management program at the Pratt Institute and has worked at the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, or MoCADA, is building a new home on Ashland Place.
“Every moment of my life,” Ms Cumbo said in a statement this month, “has led me to this incredible opportunity.”
“Together, we will put the arts at the heart of New York’s economic recovery,” she added, “and enhance the educational and cultural experiences of every student in New York City.”
But in a job where diplomacy has traditionally been important, Ms Cumbo’s latest division could complicate her role. When the news site The City reported earlier this month that her appointment was imminent, the headline read: “Laurie Cumbo, Adams supporter criticized for cultural insensitivity, set to head the agency for cultural affairs.”
Upon her nomination, several critics took to Twitter to voice their concerns, including: Make the way New Yorkan immigrant advocacy group, and Shahana Hanif, a member of the city council, who: said that Ms. Cumbo “has a history of racially insensitive and anti-Semitic remarks” and that “I don’t believe she is right to run city government.”
Ms Cumbo said in an email that she “recognises the vulnerability that exists especially for communities of color when we are divided.”
“An approach rooted in broad solidarity has always been particularly important to the BIPOC communities I have represented, which have been deeply affected and devastated by centuries of colonialism, slavery and racism,” she wrote.
After Ms. Cumbo apologized for her statement about Jewish landlords in 2013, Evan R. Bernstein, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in New York, released a statement saying, “We welcome the apology from Ms. Cumbo and her admission that her comments about the Jewish community conjured up classic anti-Semitic stereotypes and as such were deeply offensive.”
Last December, Ms Cumbo opposed the bill allowing non-citizens to vote, which the mayor approved in January.
Ms. Cumbo wondered whether the bill would reduce the voting rights of African Americans. “This particular legislation will change the power dynamics in New York City in a significant way,” she said at the time, an argument that was criticized as “divisive” by Tiffany Cabán, an incoming councilor from Queens.
When news broke this year that Ms. Cumbo was lining up for the cultural affairs position, Politico reported that immigration attorneys — including members of the mayor’s transitional committee on arts and culture — had raised concerns with city hall officials.
A committee member, Luis Miranda, a political adviser and the father of Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda, was among them. Luis Miranda, whose concerns were first reported by Politico, was said at the time to believe she was not fit for the position of cultural affairs following her comments on the bill, according to someone familiar with his thinking.
On the Council, where she represented Brooklyn’s 35th district, Ms. Cumbo also supported progressive causes, including raising the minimum wage to $15, wage equality, domestic violence services, family leave policies and gun violence prevention. On the cultural front, she worked to increase the budget for the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and other arts programs.
She also helped save the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn, the historic site of a village founded by black New Yorkers after the state abolished slavery in 1827.
“Laurie has been a passionate champion of the arts throughout her professional life—from creating MoCADA to supporting the arts as a council member,” said Anne Pasternak, director of the Brooklyn Museum. “She has been a supporter of institutions large and small. She is a creative problem solver. And I know her as a bridge builder – you should see her in a crowd in Crown Heights, where she has built trusting and supportive relationships with both Orthodox rabbis and black leaders.”
Susana Torruella Leval, a former director of El Museo del Barrio, said she has followed Ms. Cumbo since she started MoCADA. “It was a humble place, but she did extremely ambitious and very beautiful shows,” she said. “She has excellent qualifications for the job.”
Some arts executives say the Department of Cultural Affairs — which received $145.2 million in the mayor’s preliminary budget for fiscal year 2023 — has been overstretched, causing projects to stall.
Cumbo’s predecessor, Gonzalo Casals, who resigned in December 2021, warned in a tweet this month that “if the city does not invest heavily in” @NYCulture by increasing staff and salaries, the agency could collapse very quickly.”
Asked to respond to the tweet, Ryan Max, a spokesperson for the department, said: “We are confident we can manage the agency’s programs with the current headcount,” adding that the agency is “focused on filling it in.” of four vacancies.
The agency “has been pulled in too many directions and has been given multiple mandates by the city council and the mayor,” said Eli Dvorkin, editor-in-chief and policy director at the Center for an Urban Future, a public policy think tank, “as he sought to advance his fundamental core functions, namely to maintain the cultural initiatives of the city.”
Zachary Small contributed to reporting.