The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs is the largest cultural funding agency in the nation, with an expense budget in Fiscal Year 2009 of $152 million and a capital budget of about $1 billion over the next five years, the largest capital budget in the agency’s history. The Department extends support to the cultural community in three major ways: through funding for specific cultural organizations in exchange for cultural services offered to the citizens of New York City, through direct subsidies to 33 City-owned Cultural Institutions and through capital spending for construction and renovation at designated institutions.