Two years ago on Valentine’s Day, CRNY launched applications for our Guaranteed Income for Artists and Artist Employment Programs. Today, we’re thrilled to share a suite of resources that highlight what we learned from administering those programs alongside recommended actions for the broader field. 

The first two resources are process evaluations that assess the design and implementation of both of our programs. These reports are intended to provide transparency into CRNY’s processes over the last two years—including the choices we made and the implications of those choices—so that others who are considering launching similar programs can learn from and build on the experiences of CRNY staff, partners, and participating artists and organizations: 

Click here to read the Creatives Rebuild New York Guaranteed Income for Artists Process Evaluation, authored by Alexis Frasz of Helicon Collaborative. 

Click here to read the Creatives Rebuild New York Artist Employment Program Process Evaluation, authored by Danya Sherman and Deidra Montgomery of Congruence Cultural Strategies. 

The second two resources are calls to action that we developed in collaboration with dozens of colleagues working on programs or policy areas related to CRNY’s work. From August to November 2023, CRNY convened two working groups—one focused on guaranteed income for artists and another focused on artist employment—to collectively reflect on challenges, opportunities, and best practices in our programs. Both groups considered how to amplify our shared learnings to leverage new support systems for artists, resulting in a set of strategic recommendations.

These recommendations are intended to harness and direct interest from artist advocates, funders, and political leaders toward collaborative actions that will strengthen the social safety net not only for artists and cultural workers, but for all workers.  

The Guaranteed Income for Artists Working Group identified five areas where strategically aligned action between guaranteed income and arts sectors can help advance the guaranteed income movement’s goals:

1. Challenge harmful narratives about work and deservingness
2. Build a base of artists who support guaranteed income
3. Focus on public policy wins
4. Match new pilots with movement priorities
5. Don’t wait! Integrate GI values into arts funding now

Download Advance Guaranteed Income Now: Recommendations from Creatives Rebuild New York’s Guaranteed Income for Artists Working Group to learn more about the working group participants and their recommended strategic actions. 

The Artist Employment Working Group saw an opportunity generated by policy shifts and artist employment programs initiated during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and offered six recommendations to build on this momentum nationally:

1. Deepen the analysis of artist employment programs nationwide 
2. Develop tools, resources, and guidance for future artist employment programs 
3. Create a national research and policy center focused on artists’ lives and livelihoods
4. Pilot a national worker cooperative for artists and cultural workers 
5. Develop an artists’ and cultural workers’ bill of rights 
6. Convene state policymakers committed to creative workforce development

Download Advance Sustainable Livelihoods for Arts and Cultural Workers: Recommendations from Creatives Rebuild New York’s Artist Employment Working Group to learn more about the working group participants and their recommended strategic actions. 

We invite our fellow funders, government officials, cultural leaders, artists, and organizers to review these learnings to further your work – and to join CRNY in building better economic and financial support for artists and cultural workers. For more information or to consider partnering with our working groups to move these strategic recommendations forward, please contact: Jamie Hand, Director of Strategic Impact and Narrative Change at CRNY (jamie@creativesrebuildny.org).

CRNY is committed to ongoing evaluation and reflection for both of our programs, including the impact they have on participants and the broader socioeconomic conditions in which our work exists. Learn more about our evaluation processes by visiting our Impact Page.