Campaigns

Community Builders

CRNY had the privilege of supporting hundreds of AEP artists working in collaboration with community-based organizations across New York State. In 2024, CRNY created five video portraits of these unique partnerships to highlight how job opportunities for artists impact community well-being.

Deaf Refugee Advocacy

Visual artist Stacy Lawrence worked with Deaf Refugee Advocacy in Rochester, NY, to help refugees and asylum seekers understand the world and connect with others through photography.

“Stacy’s role in regards to our students is mostly showing them new ways to express themselves. New avenues of being able to see things, to see the world, and to be able to document things through photography — and being able to express their thoughts and ideas.”
– Diana Pryntz.

Onöhsagwë:de’ Cultural Center

Multidisciplinary artist Jocelyn Jones worked with the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum’s Onöhsagwë:de’ Cultural Center in Salamanca, NY, to teach young people about what it means to be Indigenous in modern times.

“The artists help us here at the Cultural Center. They’ve brought so much life into the Cultural Center because they each have their own specialty. It’s very dynamic in that way, and the community has responded really great.”
– Hayden Haynes.

Keep Rising To The Top

Choreographer and founder of Keep Rising To The Top in Harlem, NY, Violeta Galagarza worked with dancers Lissette Aquino Aguay and Yahael Torres to introduce students to different styles of dance and the cultures behind them.

“We wanted to give the floor to many to train them and give them the experience of different styles of dance and music and the culture behind it.”
– Violeta Galagarza.

Fortune Society

Artist Russell Craig worked with The Fortune Society in Queens, NY, to share the healing and transformative powers of imagination and creativity with people reckoning with experiences of incarceration.

“Artists should be embedded in community. Art is possibility. There’s an ease, there’s a joy, there’s a discovery and curiosity and play that happens. It’s the stuff that gets everyone a little freer.”
– Jamie Maleszka.

NYCLU & WCCNY

Theater director Jess McLeod and the New York Civil Liberties Union in Manhattan, NY, helped students voice their lived experiences on stage. Author Víctor María Cháman and the Workers' Center of Central New York in Syracuse, NY, helped migrant workers share their stories through writing.

“Víctor was very connected with our membership. Right away it was clear that this project of doing testimonies of immigrant workers in upstate New York resonated.”
– Jessica Maxwell.

Artist Profiles

CRNY had the privilege of supporting thousands of GI artists and hundreds of AEP artists working in collaboration with organizations across the State. In 2024, CRNY captured five of our program artists on film to highlight the impact that guaranteed income and employment opportunities can have on artists’ lives and livelihoods.

Aitina Fareed-Cooke

Born and raised in Buffalo’s East Side, Aitina Fareed-Cooke knows the value of art as a tool for building community and healing trauma.

“The sad thing about being a creative and becoming a parent is thinking you have to put that creativity on a shelf. But the best gift you can give your child is to be 100% of who you are. My children know me — all of me.”
– Aitina Fareed-Cooke

Sanga-Of-The-Valley

From Nina Simone to The Grateful Dead, Trinidad-born artist Sanga Of-The-Valley has worked with some of the most celebrated musical acts to bring the djembe to the mainstream.

“In New York, it’s very hard to make a living as an artist. CRNY helped me in all my life. Without that help, who knows where I’d be right now.”
– Sanga Of-The-Valley

Kiera Pyke

Awkwesasne-based artist Kiera Pyke creates traditional Mohawk quillwork and beadwork while caregiving full-time.

“It’s hard to get a lot of quality time with my son if I’m always working, but if I don’t work, we don’t make money. The guaranteed income allowed me to not be working all the time and bond with him and take care of him.”
– Kiera Pyke

Juliana Castaneda

Colombia-born visual artist and fashion designer Juliana Castaneda is committed to sustainability and accessibility in their art, offering a commentary on the climate crisis and the consumerist culture that exacerbates it.

“New York has the most opportunities, but it also has the most competition. The guaranteed income program has allowed me to do so much.”
– Juliana Castaneda

Alexa Dexa

Alexa Dexa is an electroacoustic composer-performer and crip xXgrandmacoreXx sound witch creating rituals that honor Disabled brilliance and belonging.

“Everyone deserves to have access to stable income to be able to enjoy their lives, to be able to rest, to be able to experience celebration and literally just pure joy of existing and being alive on this planet.”
– Alexa Dexa