Inwood Theater Gets $15M From City To Build New Immigrant Arts Center

INWOOD, NY — An Inwood theater company will receive $15 million to build a first-of-its-kind immigrant research and performing arts center in the neighborhood.

Millions in funding will go to the People's Theatre Project to build a new 17,000-square-foot center at 407 W. 206th St., Mayor Eric Adams confirmed late last month.

"For the last 13 years, we have been committed to uplifting the voices of immigrants and people of color in New York City," Mino Lora, the founding executive director of the People's Theatre Project, said in a statement. "This center will be an exemplary space, where artistic excellence goes hand in hand with the centering of immigrants and people of color, welcoming the local community, and catalyzing civic action."

The center will do more than serve as the home to the People's Theatre Project. The new building will offer the community the following resources.

• Weekly cultural programming for seniors, in partnership with local senior centers.
• Subsidized theater and studio space rentals for local performing artists.
• Arts exhibits by local and immigrant visual artists.
• A home to resident companies, partners and individual artists.

The center will also host live musical and dance performances, film screenings and other community events.

Additionally, the center will serve as a "community hub of immigrant history research" and partner with the New York Public Library to help explore the immigrant experience through scholarship and the performing arts.

“I know this partnership with the People’s Theatre Project and the $15 million investment we are providing will bring joy to so many in Upper Manhattan and across the city," Adams said in a statement.

The construction of the center at 206th Street is expected to begin this year and finish in 2027.

It will feature a flexible midsize theater, a smaller performance space, rehearsal studios, soundproof practice rooms and gallery space.

If you're wondering about the name of the center, it doesn't exist yet. The new building will be named with input from the community.

The New York City Economic Development Corporation and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs selected The People’s Theatre Project for the $15 million funding through an open application process.

Founded in 2009, the People's Theatre's Project is a multilingual Inwood-based touring company that is composed entirely of Latinx, Black and immigrant artists of color.

The construction of the new center is also part of the "Inwood NYC" neighborhood plan, which is prioritizing public investment in the uptown neighborhood in the wake of the controversial Inwood Rezoning Plan passage.

An uptown arts center was one of those establishments promised during the rezoning discussion.

“Providing spaces for Latino voices is vital in our ability to recognize the diversity of our communities and celebrate our contributions to making them stronger,” U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat said in a statement.