At a Glance
CRNY’s Artist Employment Program (AEP) was a 2-year program that funded employment for 300 artists working in collaboration with over 100 community-based organizations across New York State. Participating artists received 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 received $25,000-$100,000 per year to support their collaborations with these artists.
Dive Deeper
Learn more about the origins of the program and the participating artists and organizations by downloading the following PDF documents. CRNY also relied on several key partners to operate this program at scale, and conducted multiple research evaluations to assess the program’s design, implementation, and impact.
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Timeline
Artist Employment Program applications were open from February 14 to March 25, 2022.
Of 2,741 applications submitted, 167 collaborations were selected by a team of 20 external peer reviewers to move to the second stage of the application process.
External reviewers and CRNY staff conducted Zoom-based interviews with artists and organizational representatives from each collaboration. Reviewers assessed the interviews via criteria established in the program guidelines: the strength and integrity of the collaboration, the community impact, the capacity of the organization to support artists, and the collaboration’s vision and budget.
Artist employment began.
Creatives Rebuild New York publicly announced 98 collaborations involving 300 artists to be employed by community-based organizations, municipalities, and tribal governments across New York State.
Organizational funds were disbursed in four equal installments, or every six months, over the course of the two year program.
CRNY issued an open call for research partners to conduct impact evaluations of the program.
Fellow program administrators, scholars, and advocates gathered in New York as part of CRNY’s AEP Working Group.
CRNY and partners provided transition support as artists and organizations offboard from the program.
Artist employment ended.
Urban Institute published Empowering Artists Through Employment in which researchers evaluated and compared direct employment to cooperative employment within the Artist Employment Program.
Program Guidelines
The Artist Employment Program was a one-time opportunity that ran from 2022-2024. The archived Program Guidelines detail the context, goals, timeline, and application process—as well as additional information on eligibility criteria, selection, and confidentiality. Guidelines were distributed and available in eleven languages, and CRNY brought on partners to provide application assistance and translation/interpretation services in multiple languages. For artists, researchers, or administrators who may use this resource for future consideration or implementation, download the PDFs below or visit the archived guidelines online.
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Care Beyond Cash
Successfully supporting artists working with organizations in communities requires more than cash. In addition to the financial support CRNY gave to artists and organizations, AEP provided a range of wrap-around services and assistance before, during, and at the close of the program. At each step of the process, the team aimed to prioritize care for applicants and participants, centering artists’ well-being and a relational approach to grant-making.
Program Support
Once AEP was underway, we provided a variety of direct support to participants. These resources were aimed to help them better navigate their collaborations and offer professional development. We provided templates for shared agreements between artists and organizations, a conflict mediation process and FAQ, seminars with Springboard for the Arts, and webinars on fundraising and employment law. In addition, in lieu of traditional grant reporting, our only grant requirement was that all collaboration participants meet with a CRNY staff member via Zoom twice per year. These 4 check-in meetings allowed us to understand how the collaboration work was going and also allowed us to trouble-shoot issues and address concerns in real time, helping us develop stronger relationships with the participants.
Networking Support
In addition to direct support from CRNY, we recognized that one of the most valuable resources our participants had was one another. In order to facilitate connection and knowledge-sharing among participants, we invested in several networking strategies throughout the program. We offered informal “monthly hangs,” online Zoom meetings that had no agenda and simply offered a space for people to get to know fellow participants, share ideas, and ask for resources and guidance from one another. We also held a series of Regional Gatherings, facilitated in-person meetups around the state that allowed participants to make connections, network, and get to know other artists and organizations in their area. In order to continue to grow and facilitate connections, we worked with our partners at Tribeworks to set up an online social networking platform that was exclusive to CRNY artists and organizational participants. This platform is called The Space and continues to operate beyond the conclusion of CRNY’s programs.
Offboarding & Transition Support
The end of AEP’s two years marked a significant transition for many of the artists in the program. Though many artists stayed on with their organizations in some capacity, few were able to maintain full-time employment at the salary level supported by CRNY. In order to ease this transition, and to help navigate resources like unemployment benefits and alternate health insurance options, we offered a series of direct support opportunities such as free one-on-one sessions with NYFA coaches, webinars with Entertainment Community Fund, and a course on how to make a life as an artist with ArtistU. In addition, we compiled a master list of resources in an exit packet for all AEP artists.
Related Resources
If you are interested in learning about the Artist Employment Program’s impact and the models it uncovered to support artists and their labor, please review the following resources and recommendations. The work of this program aims to understand how artists are and want to be working, what support artists need to do their work, and how organizations and artists can work together toward deeper community impact. This work is most meaningful when it is taken up by others to carry forward the movement for artist employment and labor rights.