The Brooklyn Cultural District (formerly known as the BAM-Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District) is a $100 million development project that focuses on the arts, public spaces and affordable housing in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York. The project reflected the joint efforts of New York City's Economic Development Corporation, the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the Department of City Planning, and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership to continue to develop the Brooklyn neighborhood area. Joining the area's longtime institutional stakeholders (BAM, the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

and the

Brooklyn Public Library The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is the public library system of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is the sixteenth largest public library system in the United States by holding and the seventh by number of visitors. Like the two othe ...

) are new homes for

Mark Morris Dance Group Mark William Morris (born August 29, 1956) is an American dancer, choreographer and director whose work is acclaimed for its craftsmanship, ingenuity, humor, and at times eclectic musical accompaniments. Morris is popular among dance aficionados, ...

, Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA),

UrbanGlass UrbanGlass, located on Fulton Street in the historic 1918 Strand Theatre in the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District is the New York metropolitan area's leading glass-blowing facility. UrbanGlass was founded in 1977 by three artists and was origin ...

and

BRIC Arts BRIC, formerly known as BRIC Arts Media or Brooklyn Information & Culture, is a non-profit arts organization based in Brooklyn, New York founded in 1979 as the "Fund for the Borough of Brooklyn". A presenter of free cultural programming in Brookly ...

and the BAM's Fisher Building. The district, roughly bounded by Flatbush Avenue, Fulton Street and Hanson Place, has been the focus of development since 2004 when 80 Arts/the James E. Davis Arts Building was renovated to be home to twelve

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

arts groups. After a series of stops and starts during which the district's future was uncertain, this was followed in 2008 by the opening of the Irondale Center for Theater, Education and Outreach in the historic Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church. Performing arts spaces, ISSUE Project Room at 22 Boerum Place, and BAM Fisher at 321 Ashland Place, followed in 2012 and TFANA's new building opened for performances in 2014. Additional theater space that is home to

Bang on a Can Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted contemporary classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. Called "the cou ...

and Cool Culture opened in 2019, as did BAM Park, which was originally funded in 2014. BAM South, also known as 300 Ashland, developed by Two Trees provides affordable housing and an additional cultural component with homes for the

Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), is a museum of contemporary art located at 80 Hanson Place in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York City. It is the first museum of its kind to be opened in New York. History MoCADA was founde ...

, a

branch and an expansion of BAM Cinemas to be known as BAM Karen.

References

{{reflist Downtown Brooklyn Fort Greene, Brooklyn Arts districts Culture of Brooklyn