NYC's Materials for the Arts Opens a Monthly Free Shopping Day for Grant-Receiving Artists

Materials for the Arts (MFTA), the reuse program run by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), has added a new service as of October 2026: a dedicated shopping day for artists who have received grants through the city's local arts councils. It takes place on the second Monday of each month, holidays excepted, and is meant as extra support for grantees' creative work and their engagement with New Yorkers.

Access runs through the arts councils. Grantees book appointments with the council that funded them. Brooklyn Arts Council grantees write to grants@brooklynartscouncil.org; Bronx Council on the Arts grantees to tracey@bronxarts.org; Queens Arts Fund grantees, administered by the New York Foundation for the Arts, to apply@nyfa.org; and Staten Island grantees to Gena Mimozo at Staten Island Arts, gmimozo@statenislandarts.org. In Manhattan, 2026 Manhattan Arts Grants recipients receiving DCLA funding are directed to lmcc.website/MFTA, run by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

The shopping day arrives alongside a larger change in city funding. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and DCLA Commissioner Diya Vij announced that city-funded grants for artists will rise from a previous maximum of $5,000 to up to $10,000, the first increase in nearly two decades. DCLA gives money to re-grant partners in each borough, and those partners distribute it to artists, collectives and small nonprofits.

Applications are open in four boroughs. Brooklyn's deadline, October 11, has passed. The Bronx closes October 30, Manhattan November 12 and Queens November 17. Staten Island's cycle opens in November.

Because the shopping day is tied to grant status, the route in is to win a grant first, then book through the borough council. Artists based in New York, including those from Japan who work here, would go through the same process as everyone else.