In 2022, Hester Street partnered with Museum Hue and The Laundromat Project to launch HueArts NYC, the only citywide effort to bring greater cultural equity, visibility, and support to all people of color (POC) led and serving cultural institutions and initiatives across NYC’s five boroughs.
Hester Street designed and created the first-of-its-kind HueArts NYC Digital Map and Directory to spotlight more than 400 POC arts entities serving NYC neighborhoods, and capture critical information about the work, people, communities, and opportunities that POC arts entities offer—shaping NYC’s cultural fabric and helping to fuel the city’s creative economy.
The HueArts NYC ‘Brown Paper’ outlines action steps for meaningful, systemic change to close the cultural equity gap and ensure long-term sustainability of POC arts entities. All entities included in the HueArts platform are founded, led by, and serve Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and communities of color.
Building on our partnership with Museum Hue, HST co-launched HueArts New York State in 2023 to map and raise awareness of arts organizations founded and led by Black, Latine, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and all people of color across the state. The HueArts New York State Digital Map and accompanying Brown Paper amplifies the impact and importance of arts, cultural, and historical entities working outside of the NYC metropolitan region, raising the visibility of vital culture-bearers who are too often overlooked.
With the support of New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), HST collaborated with Museum Hue to engage and research POC-founded and -led arts, cultural, and historical entities throughout the state, develop strategies to advance racial and cultural equity, and offer recommendations on how best to nurture and sustain POC arts entities in the long-term.
