Diya Vij has been appointed as the next commissioner of New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Vij, who most recently served as vice president of curatorial and arts programmes at Powerhouse Arts, is the first person of South Asian descent to lead the agency. She brings extensive experience from previous roles at Creative Time, the High Line, and a prior five-year tenure within the DCA itself, where she managed public artist residencies and diversity initiatives.
The appointment is critical as the DCA is the largest municipal arts funder in the United States, overseeing a budget that recently reached $245 million for over 800 organizations. Vij takes the helm during a period of significant instability characterized by rising costs for artists, post-pandemic recovery challenges, and federal political pressure on cultural institutions. Her leadership will be central to Mayor Mamdani’s efforts to ensure New York remains affordable for creators and to protect cultural spaces from ideological censorship.