Arts Project With Bloomberg Ties Gets $50-Million From N.Y.C.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s final capital budget includes a $50-million allocation for an ambitious new multipurpose arts venue championed by his administration and led by current and former City Hall officials, writes The New York Times.

The grant for the Culture Shed, a 170,000-square-foot exhibition and performance space set to rise on Manhattan’s west side, is by far the largest for a cultural building project in the spending plan. It is an unusually large contribution to an arts group that has yet to stage an event, hire a staff, or set a construction budget, according to the Times.

Daniel L. Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor and the head of Mr. Bloomberg’s media company, chairs the Culture Shed’s board, and Kate D. Levin, New York’s cultural affairs commissioner, is a member.

Ms. Levin said the “highly flexible facility” will allow arts groups from New York and around the world “do things that they don’t currently have space to do.” But officials at some culture organizations questioned so large a gift to an untested entity and raised concerns that it would drain philanthropic funds from other institutions.