Ms. Laurie Cumbo

Laurie Cumbo was appointed as the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the City of New York by Mayor Eric Adams in March 2022. Laurie Angela Cumbo previously served as majority leader in the New York City Council and represented the City Council's 35th district for eight years. She wrote over forty laws and resolutions in that role, including creating the first-ever Mayor's Office to End Gun Violence and the Mayor's Office of Victim Services. Cumbo focused her career on institution building and worked diligently throughout her tenure in the City Council to secure permanent cultural homes for the Noel Pointer Foundation, Ifetayo Cultural Arts Center, the West Indian American Day Carnival Association, African Voices Magazine, Creative Outlet Dance Company, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), 651 Arts, the Brooklyn Music School, The Brooklyn Pride Center and Digital Girl. Prior to her time in the City Council, Cumbo founded MoCADA in Brooklyn and previously worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the High Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Brooklyn Children's Museum. At MoCADA, Cumbo was instrumental in expanding the museum to a newly renovated space at the James E. Davis 80 Arts Building in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and pushed to build a multimillion-dollar, state-of-the-art museum into its new home in the BAM South Building in partnership with BAM, The Brooklyn Public Library, and 651 Arts. Cumbo is a lifelong Brooklynite. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from Spelman College and a Master of Arts degree in Visual Arts Administration from New York University.