DCA CAPITAL FUNDING INCREASE

The FY 2005 Capital budget contains $378 million for capital projects at more than 100 cultural institutions. This amount includes $184 million in new appropriations which represent a $74 million increase over FY 2004. Including the current budget, the four-year plan for 2005-2008 amounts to $596 million. The increase in capital funds reflects increased building activity in the cultural sector, which has a positive economic impact on the city.

NEW YORK FILM INITIATIVES

On September 28, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Governor George E. Pataki announced a new incentive program designed to attract more film and television production to New York State. The Governor signed into law the Empire State Film Production Credit Program, which provides tax incentives to feature films and television series that do a majority of their filming on soundstages across the state. The legislation authorizes New York City to offer additional tax incentives to help boost the film industry in the five boroughs. The Mayor unveiled the Made in New York Incentive Program, featuring a combination of tax and marketing credits, coupled with expanded customer services for productions in New York City.

The incentive program for the city also includes a cultural benefit that allows producers to make a cultural donation equal to one-tenth of one percent of production costs to a nonprofit cultural organization of their choice, in exchange for the marketing credit. The donation would be made in the name of talent or an executive associated with the project, and is intended to support local theatrical, film, writing and arts institutions that nurture upcoming talent and strengthen the city's creative community.

MILESTONES

City Center Fall for Dance Festival September 28-October 3. Thirty world-renowned companies are sharing the City Center stage in this sold-out inaugural event. For more information, click here.

Aaron Davis Hall opens its 25th-anniversary season on October 8 with Mongo Affair, featuring performances by artists such as Savion Glover, Ray Barretto and Amiri Baraka. For more information, click here.

Jazz at Lincoln Center opens Frederick P. Rose Hall on October 18. Rafael Viñoly Architects have designed Jazz's first home of its own in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.

PEOPLE

S. Zuri McKie has been named executive director of the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning.

NYC & COMPANY CULTUREFEST OCTOBER 2-3

More than 100 cultural organizations will gather in Battery Park in Lower Manhattan for NYC & Company's fourth annual CultureFest this weekend. CultureFest is a free, two-day, family-friendly celebration of the city's diverse cultural offerings. Visitors will be able to stroll through the park, view exhibits and video displays, meet dancers, artists, museum representatives and learn about the coming arts season in New York.

Among this year's scheduled CultureFest participants are the American Museum of Natural History, the Bronx Zoo, the Brooklyn Museum, the Children's Museum of Manhattan, Staten Island's Historic Richmond Town, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, the Paper Bag Players, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, the Queens Museum of Art and the Roundabout Theatre Company.

OPENHOUSENEWYORK HEADLINES ARCHITECTURE WEEK

The second annual openhousenewyork weekend (October 9-10) leads a series of events as part of Architecture Week (October 2-10).

Openhousenewyork presents an inside view of 100 buildings which are normally restricted. The sites are both new and old, ranging from the turn-of-the-20th-century power plant at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn to the soaring, 1960s TWA Terminal at JFK airport to the top of the Highbridge Water Tower at Manhattan's northern end.

Architecture Week celebrates the first anniversary of the Center for Architecture, the home of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects. It will present several exhibitions and symposia at the center from October 2-10.

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