CULTURAL IMMIGRANT INITIATIVE

The Cultural Immigrant Initiative (CII) of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs supports projects that celebrate, preserve, and amplify the histories and cultural contributions of New York City's diverse immigrant communities. Through generous support from CII and New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, FRIENDS of the Upper East Side has developed a series of annual projects exploring Yorkville's immigrant past and present.

Recent initiatives include Beyond the Bricks, which highlighted the stories of Yorkville's historic buildings, small businesses, and the people behind them through original research, photography, and artwork, and Cultural Spaces of Immigrant Yorkville, a collection of self-guided walking tours examining the neighborhood's immigrant institutions, gathering places, and cultural landmarks.

Our current project, Always Shaped by Immigrants: Celebrating Immigrant-Owned Businesses in Yorkville, continues this work by spotlighting today's immigrant entrepreneurs through interviews, videos, photographs, and stories that demonstrate how new generations of business owners continue to shape—and are shaped by—Yorkville's rich immigrant heritage.