New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is putting more money behind the city’s artists—and rappers are eligible to get a piece of it.
Mamdani announced Friday that the city is doubling its grants for individual artists and small nonprofits, raising the maximum award from $5,000 to $10,000.
The increase marks the first boost to the city-funded artist grants in nearly two decades.
Mamdani made the announcement alongside Deputy Mayor Julie Su and Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Diya Vij. The expanded grants are available to creators across all five boroughs, including rappers, musicians, filmmakers, dancers, writers and painters.
For Mamdani, the bigger grants are about recognizing that artists face many of the same financial pressures as other New Yorkers.
“Artists are working New Yorkers with the same costs as everyone else,” Mamdani said. “Doubling these grants is a critical step” toward helping creators afford to remain in the city.
The grants will be distributed through local arts councils and other city-funded partners. Applications are already open in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens, while Staten Island’s application period is scheduled to begin in November.
The city is also giving current artist grantees another resource: free creative supplies.
Materials for the Arts is launching a dedicated shopping day this month, allowing eligible artists to access donated materials on a monthly basis. The program collects roughly 4 million pounds of donated materials each year, which are distributed to nonprofits, schools and city agencies with cultural programs.
Vij said the expanded funding came after six months of town halls and listening sessions with working artists throughout the city.
“I’ve spent the past six months in town halls and listening sessions with working artists across every borough,” Vij said.
“These increased grants and free resources from Materials for the Arts represent our first step,” she added.
Brooklyn Arts Council President Rasu Jilani called the larger grant ceiling a long-overdue response to the cost of living and working in New York.
“Raising the grant ceiling to $10,000 is a long overdue recognition of what it costs to live and make art in New York City,” Jilani said.
For NYC’s rappers and other independent creators, the change means the city’s creative funding can now stretch further—from production and supplies to the broader costs of building a career.
And with the ceiling doubled, $10,000 is officially the new number artists can chase.
