We believe arts organizations and artists in historically marginalized and underinvested neighborhoods are critical anchors in the city’s recovery and long-term health. Turnout NYC prioritizes these anchors and the audiences they serve. 

Design Trust for Public Space is a nonprofit organization which brings together city agencies, community organizations and private sector experts to make a lasting impact on how New Yorkers live, work and play.

Our current and upcoming: RFP: The Restorative City, a call for projects dedicated to exploring how public space and the built environment can advance health equity; Opening the Edge, a resident-led process to design a new public space at the Lillian Wald Houses; Neighborhood Commons, working with NYC Small Business Services to provide place-based organizations and small businesses the tools to recover as key community anchors; Turn Out NYC, a project increasing access to arts and culture in public spaces across the city, in partnership with SITU and the Mellon Foundation; and Alfresco NYC, a multi-stage, coalition-led effort to define the future of outdoor dining for New York City.

The Design Trust for Public Space, in partnership with the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS), is now accepting submissions from photographers for the Neighborhood Commons Photo Urbanism Fellowship to focus on capturing the stories and culture of commercial corridors and small businesses. The application deadline is February 28, 2021.

Design Trust for Public Space and the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) have partnered to launch Neighborhood Commons: Plazas, Sidewalks & Beyond, a project that will explore opportunities to improve the current model of public space governance and programming. Working with Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), Community Based Organizations (CBOs), and local businesses, Design Trust and SBS will leverage public space initiatives surrounding commercial corridors to support local economies, develop representative place-based governance models for NYC streets as public space, and produce a guide of better practices for both the City’s and community partners’ stewardship of public spaces, grounded in dignity, inclusion, and neighborhood context, and responsive to the surrounding community’s aspirations, preferences, and needs.