New York City is getting its first center for Dominican arts and culture, announced the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, last Sunday, August 11, during the Dominican Day Parade.
The Dominican Studies Institute (CUNY DSI) of the City University of New York will lead the development of the open-access facility, which will include an exhibition space for works by Latin American artists, a theater for musical performances, film screenings and lectures, and a studio for recording Dominican oral histories in Washington Heights. The center, supported by a $12.5 million commitment from Hochul, will also house a children’s library operated by the New York Public Library that will offer books and materials in Spanish.
The Dominican Center for the Arts and Culture will open in 2026 in Manhattan’s Washington Heights/Inwood neighborhood, according to Ramona Hernández, director of CUNY DSI.
“This is a very old dream of the Dominican people,” said Hernández Hyperallergic.”The idea was and is to create a space where the art and culture of people of Dominican descent can be celebrated.”
Dominicans represent the largest Latino subgroup in New York City, surpassing Puerto Ricans in 2020. According to Hernández, more than half of Washington Heights residents have Dominican ancestry.
US Representative Adriano Espaillat, who was born in the Dominican Republic and is the first former undocumented immigrant in Congress, added at the press conference on the parade that the newly secured state funding would increase the total public investment for the project to almost 38 million dollars.
“There is an urgent need for a Dominican cultural center to recognize and celebrate the contributions of our community,” Espaillat said.
Espaillat’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Hyperallergic To Explain the source of the additional public funds.
Washington Heights, also called the “Little Dominican Republic,” is celebrated as a place of Dominican tradition in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical. In the heights (2005) and the annual Dominican Day Parade in New York City, among other artworks and events. But the neighborhood does not yet have its own public Dominican arts and culture facility.
“Washington Heights happens to be the place that holds this historical memory,” said Hernandez Hyperallergic“This is where we first came. This is where we became what we are today.”
Hernández said the space would be on par with the New York Historical Society and the Morgan Library and would meet the needs of the city’s Dominican communities, including bilingual English-Spanish resources.
“Everyone in this room will remind you of the value of the heritage that lies in preserving, maintaining and sharing this language,” Hernández said.
Hernández attributed the lack of cultural documentation to the inability to record the oral traditions of older Dominican women. “(Many) Dominican women do not write Diaries (diaries),” she explained, “and in doing so, the contribution of Dominican women and people in this community is lost.”
The center will have a recording studio to capture these stories. At the heart of the oral history interviews, Hernández said, is the question: “How did this community come into being at a time when immigrants were not necessarily welcomed?”
Hernández stressed that the art complex will not complement existing cultural institutions in the Dominican Republic, but will be completely new in its breadth and scope.
“That’s what was missing,” Hernández said.
