This is unrelated, but I find it entertaining that your opening picture is from a designer from where I'm from...and it's not New York.

>>2547536
It's a big city with a lot of art stuff there. Print illustration is massive in New York. Not sure about comics or animation, but I bet you it is still better than most cities.

>>2547536
New York City has a pretty great art community, especially for illustration and comics.
If you have the time, I'd check out the Society of Illustrators and see what they have to offer. It's a museum/community focused on both illustration and comic art that offers some pretty great stuff like exhibitions and figure drawing.
Unfortunately, the animation scene over there isn't too great and everything is moving west. There's only a handful of good studios like Titmouse and Augenblick, but other than that I can't really say much about the animation community there.