New York City is adding a practical perk to its recently enlarged support for artists: free materials. Materials for the Arts, the city's reuse program, is opening a new shopping scheme for artists who hold city-funded grants, with the first session set for Monday, October 19. The move follows an announcement from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Department of Cultural Affairs that grants for individual artists and small nonprofits would double, lifting a cap that had stood at $5,000 for two decades to $10,000. Under the new scheme, grant recipients will be able to browse the organization's 35,000-square-foot warehouse and take materials at no cost. The shopping days will run on the second Monday of each month, except on federal holidays, between 3pm and 6pm. The warehouse stock is famously eclectic, reflecting its role as a clearing house for donated and surplus goods. Recent examples include leather offcuts once used to upholster airplane seats, books on the visual arts, and dinosaur masks. The program builds on Materials for the Arts' long-standing work supplying the city's schools and nonprofits with reused materials. Until now, its regular users have included teachers and community groups. By creating dedicated shopping days for grant-funded artists, the organization is extending a model that treats surplus as a public resource, and giving working artists direct access to the same shelves. The organization's executive director, Tara Sansone, said the expansion was intended to widen access to a city program that serves artists, changemakers, and New Yorkers more broadly. For grantees, the combination of larger cash awards and free supplies addresses two sides of making work in an expensive city: paying for time and paying for stuff. The first shopping day arrives as the doubled grants begin to reach recipients.