Our Story

Artists inspire us and illuminate our shared human experience. They are storytellers and preserve our histories. Artists in communities imagine new approaches to our greatest challenges and bring their creativity to everything from building collective power and facilitating collaboration, to cultivating individual agency and advancing well-being.

Artists are also critical to the health of our economy. Arts and culture contribute $120 billion to New York State’s economy and are a main driver of the state’s $177 billion tourism industry. The sector also accounts for nearly half a million jobs. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, New York State lost 50 percent of its performing arts jobs over the course of 2020. In New York City, the figure was 72 percent—more than any other industry. It was imperative to place artists at the center of large-scale investment and relief efforts. Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY) was conceived to do just that.

CRNY was a three-year, $125 million investment in the financial stability of New York State artists and the organizations that employed them. CRNY provided guaranteed income and employment opportunities for 2,700 artists whose primary residence was in New York State. These two programs worked to alleviate unemployment of artists, continued the creative work of artists in partnership with organizations and their communities, and enabled artists to continue working and living in New York State under less financial strain.

Through our research, storytelling, policy, and advocacy work, CRNY also aimed to catalyze systemic change in the arts and cultural economy, recognize the value of artists’ contributions, and reshape society’s understanding of artists as workers who are vital to the health of our communities. Simply put, we worked to move beyond valuing the artistic product and toward valuing the humanity of the artist. Artists need and deserve to be paid predictable and regular incomes.

CRNY’s mission was to position artists as workers and advance equitable and sustainable support structures for artists within the arts and cultural ecosystem in New York State. Our vision was to catalyze systemic change in the arts and cultural economy, recognize the value of artists’ contributions, and reshape society’s understanding of artists as workers who are vital to the health of our communities. 

During our three years, CRNY was 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 were 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.

Our research, advocacy, and narrative change efforts were conducted with a strong commitment to equitable evaluation practices and artist-centered storytelling. We prioritized participatory processes and methods that centered the perspectives and knowledge of program participants, and ensured that they were the ones best positioned to use or benefit from the findings.

CRNY’s ethical framework prioritized 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.

For more information, download CRNY’s full Theory of Change (PDF).

Over the past three years, Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY) invested $125 million to support artists across the state through our guaranteed income and employment programs, research, advocacy, policy, and storytelling initiatives. In addition to being informed by our Theory of Change, we allocated funds based on feedback from artists, convenings with stakeholders, and our research outcomes. 

Of CRNY’s $125 million, 51.3% ($64.1M) of funds supported the Artist Employment Program, and 37.3% ($46.6M) of funds supported the Guaranteed Income for Artists Program. CRNY’s small but mighty administration team and other administration costs accounted for 4.5% ($5.6M) of our budget. It’s important to note that as a fully-funded initiative there were no fundraising costs. 2.9% ($3.6M) of CRNY’s funds were spent on research, and 1.5% ($1.8M) of funds were spent on communications to share the impact of our work and to tell the stories of artists’ lives and contributions to communities across New York State. 2.5% ($3.1M) of CRNY’s funds were spent on our policy and advocacy. Finally, CRNY’s commitment to access cost 0.2% ($250K) of the budget, which allowed us to support all of our convenings, webinars, and meetings with appropriate access facilitators and to translate our documents into multiple languages.*

* Exact figures will be updated upon the close of CRNY’s books in June 2025.

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 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’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 conducted a range of research, advocacy, and narrative change efforts with a strong commitment to equitable evaluation practices and artist-centered storytelling.

CRNY defined an artist, culture bearer, or culture maker (‘artist’) as 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.