"We want to be a serious city, and serious means that we have great education and we have great exposure to culture," Pérez said.

Museums and culture organizations have lost out on much-needed money as a result.

DeSantis cited a general desire to reduce spending and avoid funding items he deemed "inappropriate for state tax dollars."

Disputes about the distribution of arts funding within New York may come across as parochial outside the city. But the centralization of cultural resources is also taking place on a national scale…

ArtPrize is changing. Touted as the contemporary art world's largest open-call, public-vote cash competition, ArtPrize is no longer a hyper-local celebration of hyper-realist art. Now in its sixth y…