New York Isn’t New York Without Artists is a policy playbook commissioned by CRNY and authored by HR&A Advisors following a year-long process of engaging policymakers, artists, and organizers across New York State. It is intended to be a long-term, step-by-step program for lawmakers at all levels of government to reference as they enact policies that empower artists, a labor force integral to the state’s economy but one that is often on the edge of hardship and economic uncertainty. Artists and creative workers require additional resources and labor protections to continue working and serving communities statewide, and improved policy can help to improve conditions for all workers in the state.

The Playbook includes nineteen timely and actionable recommendations that span a range of policy areas, including housing and financial security, labor protections and job quality, workforce development, economic development, and arts and culture policies. This range is intentionally expansive, inviting policymakers to consider creative workers not only as critical constituents but also as central to New York’s identity and economy. Click here to learn more about the Policy Playbook, or download the full document below.

CRNY’s Artist Employment Program (AEP) is a 2-year program that funds employment for 300 artists working in collaboration with community-based organizations across New York State. Participating artists receive a salary of $65,000 per year (commensurate with median household income in New York State) plus benefits and dedicated time to focus on their artistic practice. Community-based organizations receive $25,000-$100,000 per year to support their collaborations with these artists.

Click here to learn more about the artists and organizations participating in the Artist Employment Program.

The Artist Employment Program application period closed on March 25, 2022. As a three-year initiative that will close in 2024, CRNY will not be offering another round of Artist Employment Program funding. Click here to view the archived program guidelines.

CRNY’s Guaranteed Income for Artists program provides regular, no-strings-attached cash payments for 2,400 artists who have financial need. Each artist receives $1,000 per month for 18 consecutive months. Our guaranteed income work joins with that of municipalities, policymakers, community leaders, and activists from across the US who are engaging in public conversations about guaranteed income and economic stability for community members who are living with financial uncertainty. CRNY’s Guaranteed Income for Artists program aims to help artists meet their basic needs outside of traditional or merit-based grantmaking.

Click here to learn more about the Guaranteed Income for Artists participants.

The Guaranteed Income for Artists application period closed on March 25, 2022. As a three-year initiative that will close in 2024, CRNY will not be offering another round of Guaranteed Income for Artists funding. Click here to view the archived program guidelines.

Artists have served as critical thought-partners in the conceptualization and implementation of the Guaranteed Income for Artists and Artist Employment programs. As key members of CRNY’s Leadership Council and Think Tank, artists helped shape both programs to address the specific employment needs and unique challenges artists face in building a long-term sustainable livelihood.

The Think Tank, which convened in bi-monthly gatherings from September to December 2021, included a diverse coalition of New York State artists, scholars, strategists, and organizers whose wide-ranging identities and lived experiences represent the communities that CRNY’s programs aim to reach.  The Think Tank co-created both the Guaranteed Income for Artists and Artist Employment programs through collaborative decision-making processes which were documented and archived to serve as a model for others interested in co-design.

An artist, culture bearer, or culture maker (‘artist’) is someone who regularly engages in artistic or cultural practice to: express themselves with the intention of communicating richly to or sharing with others; pass on traditional knowledge and cultural practices; offer cultural resources to their communities; and/or co-organize and co-create within communities toward social impacts. Artists aspire to sustain themselves through their practice and maintain a commitment to continuing their practice. Artists can work both individually and collaboratively, or as educators within their field of practice.

Artistic and cultural practice includes: Craft, Dance, Design, Film, Literary Arts, Media Arts, Music, Oral Traditions, Social Practice, Theater, Performance Art, Traditional Arts, Visual Arts, and Interdisciplinary Arts. Click here for a detailed description of each discipline.

CRNY is committed to confronting racial and wealth inequities and to developing effective strategies that move the New York State arts and culture ecosystem toward an equitable future. The Guaranteed Income for Artists and Artist Employment programs have been designed to reach artists deeply rooted in and reflective of populations that face structural barriers to financial security, with specific attention to addressing the pandemic’s startling and disparate impact on artists who come from, and serve, communities of color.

CRNY’s ethical framework prioritizes transformative, caring support for artists; trust in and respect for program participants; worker solidarity and labor acknowledgement; reparative, equitable access to funds and opportunities; and an invitation to challenge and reimagine existing systems and institutions.

• July 1, 2021 — Leadership Council announced
• August 31, 2021 — Think Tank members announced
• Sept 13-Dec 15, 2021 — Think Tank gatherings to co-design programs
• February 14, 2022 — Application guidelines released
• March 25, 2022 — Deadline to submit applications
• April 15, 2022 — Guaranteed Income for Artists participants notified of selection
• May 31, 2022 — Deadline to complete Portrait of NYS Artists Survey
• June 30, 2022 — Artist Employment Program participants announced
• November 17, 2022 — Aggregate data about Guaranteed Income for Artists participants announced

CRNY represents a $125 million funding commitment, anchored by $115 million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and $5 million each from the Ford Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

CRNY is a fiscally sponsored project of Tides Center. As a champion for progress and innovation, Tides provides CRNY with the organizational and operational support to help CRNY reach its mission. For details on Tides’ charitable status and fundraising disclosures, visit www.tides.org/state-nonprofit-disclosures/.

The ideas are not new, but the sense of urgency is. Artists have been grappling with these issues for some time. Inspired by the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) Artists Project of 1978–80, Creatives Rebuild New York is an extension of Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander’s work on the Governor’s Reimagine New York Commission in 2021. The initiative was further developed in collaboration with Emil J. Kang, Program Director for Arts and Culture at Mellon, and CRNY’s Executive Director Sarah Calderon, who was previously managing director of ArtPlace America.

CRNY was officially announced in Spring 2021 amidst a national movement of broad-based employment programs that put artists back to work. These vital relief programs have helped thousands of artists maintain their livelihoods and mitigate financial disaster amidst an ongoing global pandemic. Now, rooted in a belief that improving the lives of artists is paramount to the vitality of New York State’s collective social and economic wellbeing, CRNY’s programs build upon COVID-19 relief to envision longer-term, sustainable opportunities for artists across New York State.

Following the launch of the Guaranteed Income for Artists and Artist Employment programs, CRNY is conducting a range of research, advocacy, and narrative change efforts with a strong commitment to equitable evaluation practices and artist-centered storytelling. These efforts are designed with an eye towards replicability and integration of learnings into policy at the local, state, and national levels. Artists and organizations who elect to participate in these efforts will be compensated for their contributions.

CRNY launched the “Portrait of New York State Artists” survey in March 2022 to build a portrait of the needs, circumstances, and experiences of artists across New York State. We will use data from this survey to conduct advocacy and narrative change work, and to assess whether the funding provided through CRNY’s programs helps meet the needs of individual artists in any substantive or transformational ways.

Upon submission of an application to the Guaranteed Income for Artists or Artist Employment Program, artists were invited to answer additional questions, all optional, about their artistic practice, financial circumstances, well-being, pandemic experience, and attitudes about policy and advocacy matters. A publicly accessible version of the survey was made available for those not interested or eligible to apply for CRNY funding. The survey closed on May 31, 2022. All responses were strictly confidential, and anonymized before being viewed.

The complete Portrait of New York State Artists Giveaway Rules are archived here.

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