Indian American Curator Diya Vij Appointed as New York City’s Next Commissioner of Cultural Affairs

New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani has appointed Diya Vij as Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, making her the first person of South Asian descent to lead the nation’s largest municipal funder of culture.

Vij, 40, will report to Julie Su, the city’s first deputy mayor for economic justice.

The Department of Cultural Affairs is considered one of the most important jobs in the city’s arts ecosystem. The department is the largest municipal funder of culture in the country, supporting 1,000 nonprofit cultural organizations and providing $245 million in funding in the last fiscal year. 

According to the official NYC Mayor’s Office announcement, Mayor Mamdani said: “I am proud to welcome Diya Vij as Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs. Diya is a visionary and deeply thoughtful leader who understands that art is not ornamental to this city — it is essential. She has worked to weave culture into the fabric of public life. This administration believes art is a public good, not a luxury reserved for the few. Under her leadership, we will fight to keep New York a city where artists can afford to live and create — and where every New Yorker, in every borough, can experience the energy and inspiration that art makes possible.” 

Background and Career

Vij received her MA in Art History from Hunter College in 2015 and her BA from Bard College in 2008. 

Vij comes with a background in public and socially engaged art, especially in the mayor’s home borough of Queens. She has worked at the Queens Museum, the High Line and Creative Time in addition to Powerhouse Arts, where she began in November as director of curatorial and arts programs. 

According to the NYC Mayor’s Office, Vij returns to the DCLA, where she previously worked on special projects under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. During her earlier tenure, she launched and co-directed the Public Artists in Residence (PAIR) program, which embeds artists within City agencies and integrates art into civic life. Artists including Tania Bruguera, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Onyedika Chuke and Ebony Noelle Golden participated in the program. 

Vij has previously worked in the DCA for four and a half years, from 2014 to 2019 under De Blasio appointee Tom Finkelpearl, as a digital communications manager. She also launched and managed DCA’s Public Artists in Residence program and led the agency’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative. 

Commitment to Affordability and Access

In her statement upon appointment, Vij addressed the challenges facing New York’s arts community. According to the NYC Mayor’s Office, she said: “This administration has renewed my belief that city government can be a site of real change — and that art and culture are essential to that project. Too many artists have been forced out of the city they love — crushed by the cost-of-living crisis. As Commissioner, I will extend the Mayor’s affordability agenda to arts and culture. It is an honor to help build a city where artists, cultural workers, and New Yorkers across all five boroughs can do more than get by — they can live full, vibrant and curious lives.” 

According to ARTnews, Vij enters the office at a turbulent period for the arts. An unstable economy and rising costs—both in the New York and across the U.S.—has forced many galleries to close and artists to leave New York, while the Trump Administration has cut grants and funding to arts organizations and attempted to punish museums who do not follow his administration’s directives on ideology and eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives. 

Support from Arts Leaders

Former DCLA Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl, who hired Vij a decade ago, praised the appointment. According to Mirage News, he said: “I had the immense pleasure of working with Diya Vij for four years at the Queens Museum and four years at the Department of Cultural Affairs. Watching her personal, political, intellectual, and leadership growth has been an immense pleasure and privilege over the last 16 years. She has a great vision for cultural policy and a deep love of artists and the entire cultural field. Big congratulations both to our new cultural leader, and to the mayor who had the vision to put her in charge of the most important cultural funder in the public sector in the United States of America.”