1700s

Europeans settle Canarsie indigenous lands near the East River. The settlement is named Breuckelen after a municipality in the Netherlands.

1835

Henry Thompson, a revered African-American leader in Brooklyn, purchases 32 parcels of lands from the venerated Lefferts family estate. This region would become present-day Bedford Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. A gentleman named James Weeks also purchases land from the Lefferts, forming the village of Weeksville.

1867

Prospect Park is designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux; at 556 acres, it is Brooklyn’s largest park.

1882

Author and humorist Oscar Wilde delivers a lecture on the English Renaissance at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

1883

The Brooklyn Bridge, spanning the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn, opens to the public. With a span of 1,595 feet, it becomes the longest bridge in the world.

1895

The Brooklyn Museum is founded. Its Beaux-Arts building is designed by McKim, Mead and White.

1898

Brooklyn is consolidated with the other cities, boroughs, and counties to form the modern City of New York. The borough continues, however, to maintain a distinct culture.

1959

Author Truman Capote publishes Brooklyn Heights: A Personal Memoir, a good-humored autobiographical essay about his life in the borough, in the travel periodical Holiday Magazine.

1966

A group of Brooklyn residents passionate about sustaining the borough’s artistic heritage convene in the basement of Charlene Victor’s Flatbush apartment. With Victor at the helm, they found the Brooklyn Arts Council (then known as the Brooklyn Arts and Cultural Association).

1968

Brooklyn Arts Council’s first Salute to Creative Youth takes place at the Brooklyn Museum. An annual showcase of visual art by the borough’s schoolchildren, Salute to Creative Youth exhibited their masterpieces alongside the museum’s trademark Asher B. Durand and William Williams portraits.

1969

Flatbush native Barbara Streisand wins her first Academy Award for her role in Funny Girl.

1969

Brooklyn-born Shirley Chisholm becomes the first African-American woman to be elected to Congress. The U.S. Representative will run for the nation’s highest office in 1972.

1970

Medgar Evers College, named after the African-American civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1963, opens its doors in Brooklyn.

1972

Christopher George Latore Wallace, better known as the rapper The Notorious B.I.G., is born in Weeksville.

1973

Emerging filmmaker Danny Devito receives an award from Brooklyn Arts Council for his comedic short, The Sound Sleeper.

1974

Charlene Victor, Executive Director of Brooklyn Arts Council, is appointed to New York Governor Hugh L. Carey’s 38-member Task Force on the Arts. The collective is charged with equitably and swiftly distributing the state’s $34.1 million arts budget.

1974

Brooklyn Arts Council regularly hosts lunchtime performances on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall. This priceless photo of a city worker enjoying himself during a belly dancing set goes vintage-viral. It is syndicated in hundreds of newspapers across the country.

1974

As the second-wave feminist movement reaches a crescendo and Judy Chicago commences her venerated Dinner Party installation, Charlene Victor moderates a workshop at The Brooklyn YWCA’s Annual Meeting. The workshop is titled, “Does women’s lib influence current trends in art?”

1974

Brooklyn takes Manhattan! With the support of Con Edison, Brooklyn Arts Council organizes a night of performances by the borough’s artists at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Special guests include Contemporary Gospel Ensemble, the Lost and Found Co., pianist Ron-Ald Williams, vocalist Danny Holliday, Project Grow, the United Community Centers International Folk Dancers, and the Steve Kroon Ensemble.

1975

Gary Tomei – attorney, Brooklyn Arts Council board member, and father of future Academy Award-winning actress Marisa Tomei – runs for Brooklyn Civil Court Judge.

1976

Brooklyn Arts Council hosts a Bicentennial Celebration at Floyd Bennett Field. Performances include African and Latin concerts with music professor Benny Kalanzi, the Rob Shanta Dance Group, Abike Jotayo, and percussionist Steve Kroon.

1977

The Brooklyn Bridge is ‘sold for a day’ as part of an auction benefiting Brooklyn Arts Council. The winning bid of $1,000 belongs to 39 year-old Canarsie native Benjamin Dubose, who – in his younger years – crossed the bridge daily to court his soon-to-be wife Geraldine.

1978

As Saturday Night Fever sweeps the nation, Brooklyn Arts Council kicks off Looking Good, a series of disco workshops for teenagers. The curriculum includes sessions on disc jockey elocution, turntable artistry, atmosphere design, and social dancing.

1979

Brooklyn Arts Council sponsors Theater in the Back, a Sunday film matinee series at Brooklyn Museum. The first screening is hosted by the stage star and Ida Lupino muse, Mala Powers.

1979

Brooklyn Arts Council joins forces with local organizations to save the shuttered Loew’s Kings Theater. To raise funds, the organization’s archivist, Herb Graff, hosts “An Evening of Out-Takes” at Kings Theater, a screening of film scenes that were rescued from Hollywood’s cutting room floors. 

1980s

Many local artists find creative community at BACA Downtown, Brooklyn Arts Council’s Willoughby Street performance space and gallery, including Suzan-Lori Parks, Holly Hughes, Mac Wellman, Glenn Ligon, and David Wojnarowicz.

1980

Brooklyn Arts Council expands to include grant-making on behalf of the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

1983

Brooklyn Arts Council collaborates with local organizations to host the largest block party in the history of the world in Downtown Brooklyn. The festivities included performances, street cuisine, and plenty of dancing.

1983

Spike Lee debuts his graduate thesis film, titled Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. The film is partially funded through a Brooklyn Arts Council grant.

1983

In order to encourage more funding for the arts, Charlene Victor testifies before Congress on behalf of herself and composer Leonard Bernstein. “Should the Government withdraw or greatly reduce its arts funding,” Victor warns, “there is no doubt that business and the foundation community will also follow suit.”

1984

In collaboration with the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Brooklyn Arts Council doubles its Community Arts Grants capacity.

1984

Brooklyn Arts Council establishes an Adopt-A-Landmark program to encourage students between 6th and 12th grade to become involved in the history of their borough and their local neighborhood.

1986

In celebration of its twentieth anniversary, Brooklyn Arts and Cultural Association formally changes its name to Brooklyn Arts Council to better reflect the breadth of their advocacy, programming, and outreach.

1988

Brooklyn Arts Council launches its Folk Arts program to preserve and document traditional artforms in the borough.

1989

Comedian and Prospect Heights native Joan Rivers receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1990

Seven year-old piano prodigy Gregory Magarshak wins Brooklyn Art Council’s Annual Music Competition for a third year in a row.

1990

The Americans with Disabilities Act passes, motivating the Metro Transit Authority to begin installing elevators and escalators in high-traffic subway stations.

1990

Suzan-Lori Parks’ play “The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World” premieres in Brooklyn. It is produced with the assistance of an NEA grant to Brooklyn Arts Council.

1993

David Dinkins becomes the first African-American mayor of New York City.

1995

Bedford-Stuyvesant native Lena Horne wins her first Grammy Award for An Evening With Lena Horne. 

1999

Ella Weiss begins her tenure as the second executive director of Brooklyn Arts Council.

1999

Brooklyn Museum presents local artist Chris Ofili’s provocative painting The Holy Virgin Mary. The exhibition results in then-New York City Mayor suing the Museum for violation of the First Amendment; a court later rules in favor of the cultural institution.

2003

Brooklyn Arts Council debuts the JPMorgan Chase Regrant Program; the grants make it possible for Brooklyn Arts Council to support other organizations as well as artists and arts administrators at every level of their careers.

2006

Brooklyn Arts Council opens a gallery space at 55 Washington Street in DUMBO to exclusively showcase the work of emerging and mid-career Brooklyn artists.

2015

Charlotte Cohen becomes the third executive director of Brooklyn Arts Council.

2015

Brooklyn Arts Council’s Folk Arts program celebrates the 10th anniversary of Folk Feet, an annual dance program. 

2017

By passing Intro 1568-2017, New York City becomes a sanctuary city; it is established that no New York city resources can be used for federal immigration enforcement.

2019

Brooklyn Arts Council renames its Fiscal Sponsorship program Arts+ Innovation Incubator.

2020

Brooklyn Arts Council rebrands its Professional Development series under the name Brooklyn Innovation Institute.

2020

The East River Park in Williamsburg is renamed to honor the late trans activist of color Martha P. Johnson; it is the first New York state park named in memory of an LGBTQ person.

2023

Rasu Jilani becomes the fourth Executive Director of Brooklyn Arts Council.