We’re proud to share that BRIC President Wes Jackson has been appointed to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition advisory team!
Wes will serve on the Committee on Arts & Culture alongside 27 other NYC leaders, including Dr. Elizabeth Alexander, Mellon Foundation; Gonzalo Casals, Culture & Arts Policy Institute; Colm Dillane, KidSuper; Atiba Edwards, Brooklyn Children’s Museum; and other esteemed leaders in the field. This team will help advise the incoming administration on issues shaping the city’s arts, media, and cultural landscape.
On behalf of everyone at BRIC and the many communities we serve, Wes is honored, ready, and can’t wait to get to work.
“A love for hard work, a deep belief in the promise of New York City, and a commitment to the affordability agenda that New Yorkers are demanding unite the more than 400 experts we have appointed to our Transition Committees today. By helping us recruit top talent and develop smart policy, these committees will be instrumental to ensuring we hit the ground running on January 1st — and that our results align with the promises we’ve made.” – NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani
“Meet the Members of Mamdani’s Arts and Culture Transition Committee” – Hyperallergic
“New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani Names Arts and Culture Transition Committee” – ARTnews
“I’m honored and energized to join Mayor-elect Mamdani’s Arts & Culture Transition Committee. As President of BRIC, an entrepreneur, and academic, I’ve dedicated my career to building spaces where New York City artists and communities can connect, create, and tell their stories — and I’m excited to bring that perspective and urgency to this transition effort. I’m inspired by the Mayor-elect’s laser focus on affordability. It isn’t only about lowering costs — it’s about expanding opportunity. Arts and culture are among the most powerful ways we do that. They give people access to skills, space, expression, and healing.Together, we have a chance to elevate arts and culture as foundational to affordability, opportunity, and inclusion across New York City.” – Wes Jackson
Wes Jackson is the president of BRIC, one of New York’s premier cultural nonprofits and a new member of the City’s Cultural Institutions Group. BRIC is a community-centered media producer, arts presenter, and educator, widely known as the producer of the city’s longest-running independent music and performing arts festival, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, and the Emmy-award-winning BRIC TV. For almost 50 years, BRIC has collaborated with a growing mix of city-wide innovators and change agents. Under Wes’ leadership, BRIC has centered and invested in its Community Media Center and producers, expanded its media literacy classes, deepened arts education partnerships with schools, nonprofits, and cultural organizations, and secured critical funding that allows BRIC to serve more people than ever before.
An accomplished entrepreneur, academic, and producer, Wes founded and led the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival for 15 years as a vehicle to celebrate Hip-Hop as a force for social change. He is a a founding member of the Brooklyn Arts and Culture Kollective (BACK), which exists to strengthen the success of Black and Brown leaders of cultural organizations in Brooklyn. He has served as Director and Senior Executive In-Residence of Emerson College’s Business Creative Enterprises Program. He has also served on the Boards of the Brooklyn Public Library and the Brooklyn Historical Society (The Center of Brooklyn History).
Today, Wes is focused on heightening BRIC’s role as a cultural amplifier, a community hub, a media educator, and a workforce incubator for artists and audiences throughout New York City and far beyond. In recognition of the work BRIC has conducted under his leadership, the organization was designated a member of the prestigious NYC Cultural Institutions Group in 2025. Wes was also selected to represent BRIC on Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition committee on Arts & Culture.