Delivering Diverse Audiences

IT STARTS WITH COMMITMENT

NYC’s cultural institutions draw visitors from across the globe, but are often off limits to New Yorkers of limited means.

The stark reality is that over 50% of children in New York City are from low-income families. For many, the cost of visiting a museum or zoo simply would not be possible without our cultural institution partners' commitment to cultivating new, more diverse audiences.

Working with 90 museums, botanic gardens and zoos that are committed to audience development and providing families and young children with free and unlimited access, Cool Culture and its partners are unique in the nation as a coalition dedicated to breaking down barriers to cultural participation.

OUR COMMITMENT

Founded in 1999, Cool Culture is a non-profit organization that helps low-income families access and enjoy New York City's rich cultural life, in order to provide educational experiences for their children, and to serve as their child's primary educator. Cool Culture is committed to increasing the presence of low-income families, especially people of color, in New York City's arts and cultural institutions.

Cool Facts: 
partners-diverse audiences

DELIVERING THE FUTURE

Cool Culture programs succeed in delivering diverse and nontraditional audiences to our City's cultural institutions by working in partnership with hundreds of early childhood centers and staff.

These educators have long-standing relationships with their constituents and their communities, and are therefore able to inspire parents to travel outside their communities-- and often outside of their comfort zones--to access cultural and educational opportunities for their children.

When combined with the commitment of over 90 of the City's premiere arts and cultural institutions, we bring arts- and science-based learning experiences to over 50,000 eligible families.

In that process, we also ensure that cultural institutions achieve their goal of providing public education for all New Yorkers, regardless of income--while developing the audiences of the future.