NYC Performing Arts Spaces was established in 1982 as Exploring the Metropolis. In the 1980s, our efforts focused on zoning in the Theatre District: we served as a neutral facilitator between public and private sector leaders on issues involving the impact of land use regulations on the performing arts. Our colloquies from this period became landmarks and our reports continue to be used by government officials and those in the private sector.
In the 1990s, we evaluated the City Planning Department's Special Purpose Districts and the Landmarks Commission's Historic Districts, some 20 years after regulations established them. The City's Economic Development Corporation engaged us to (1) examine the business relationship between Kaufman-Astoria Studios and the American Museum of the Moving Image in Queens as a prototype for a for-profit/nonprofit, public/private sector recording studio project, and (2) develop a potential culture and tourism center in a former jazz club in Harlem, thereby increasing visitation to Harlem and its cultural institutions.
Our studies of
Seeing the potential for a single resource that would benefit both constituencies, in 2001 we created the first of our three online databases in order to:
Our 2004 and 2008 studies on the
In the fall of 2008, NYC Performing Arts Spaces became a program of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit organization serving the basic resource needs of a national community of performing and visual artists and arts organizations.