Mission

The Museum, Arts, & Culture Access Consortium (MAC) is a disability-affirming organization striving toward increasing access to cultural institutions in and around New York City for the disability community through connecting, learning, and advocating.

Vision

MAC envisions a future in which a rich cultural life is completely accessible and equitably available to all disabled New Yorkers and visitors. We are committed to promoting equity, belonging, and universal access to arts & culture spaces, reaching far beyond compliance. We know that there is no end to this vision of disability equity; it is an evolving process which is deeply connected to other aspects of quality of life and community wellbeing. Our vision for the future requires both enhancing and growing knowledge and resources, and also dismantling, realigning, and reimagining ideas, systems and practices. 

Because disability intersects with all other identities, we aspire to align with the values and intentions of all justice movements. We are committed to the notion that “a rising tide lifts all boats” in that intersectional justice is key to the work we do and how we can support the greater NYC community.  MAC aspires to align our work with the principles and values of Disability Justice.

Goals

• We seek to bring about a ‘culture shift in the cultural sphere’ such that arts & culture institutions and practitioners value, seek out and support the contributions and needs of disabled people. 
• MAC aspires to be the central resource and thought leader for disability equity in arts and culture in New York. 
• We hope to generate a supportive peer community of cultural workers and disability equity advocates invested in disability access in arts and culture. 

Click here to read MAC’s 2023-25 Strategic Plan.

MAC is a fiscally-sponsored organization of the Fund for the City of New York. We are governed by an Advisory Board, as well as a few part-time paid staff. The activities of the organization are supported by volunteer committees made up of MAC members.

We are a group of disabled and non-disabled people working together to provide information, tools, resources and community support to arts and culture organizations and the practitioners who work with them and within them. We recognize that we cannot create change alone.  We remain aware of and connected to the work of others around disability equity in arts and culture and we seek to find opportunities to amplify impact through partnerships and collaborations. 

Following the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, a small group of museum and disability professionals started meeting informally to discuss topics related to accessibility at their New York-based institutions. They called their collective MAC, or the Museum Access Consortium.

Over time, the size of MAC grew as more people in the museum field became interested in accessibility. A formal volunteer Steering Committee was established, and in 2015, the Supporting Transitions Project was launched.

In 2019, MAC rebranded as the Museum, Arts, & Culture Access Consortium, keeping the acronym but expanding its reach to all areas of the New York City cultural field.