Creatives Rebuild NY Awards $165,000 To Support Data-Driven Solutions For Artists

Today, Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY), an organization dedicated to improving the lives and livelihoods of artists, announced grants of $15,000 to 11 organizations.

The grants will incorporate data from the  “Portrait of New York State Artists” Survey into an advocacy initiative or strategic communications campaign. CRNY launched the survey in March 2022 to build a portrait of the needs, circumstances, and experiences of artists across the state. 

The survey collected data from artists about their artistic practices, financial circumstances, well-being, pandemic experiences, and attitudes about policy and advocacy matters. 

Following a public Request for Proposals, CRNY reviewed 17 total submissions and selected 11  groups whose analysis and interpretation of the data will effectively demonstrate the challenges confronting artists, as well as offer concrete, data-driven solutions.

All resulting research products and campaigns will be provided with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) citation via the National Archive of Data on Arts and Culture, where CRNY’s Portrait of New York State Artists Survey data is permanently archived. 

The selected recipients reflect a range of artistic disciplines as well as issue areas that transcend the arts, including housing affordability, fair pay, and safety net access. The proposed projects will engage stakeholders and audiences across New York City, New York State, and nationwide.  

“When we released the survey, our aim was to provide hard data to back up the stories of the thousands of artists in New York living in economic precarity,” said Jamie Hand, Director of Strategic Impact and Narrative Change at CRNY. “Now these 11 groups will bring their own unique perspectives and understanding to the data, and shed light on new ways to advocate for artists as workers. Through their insights on the data we will be able to develop strategies and take action to create policies that work for artists in New York and across the country.” 

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The 11 Advocacy Grant recipients are: 

• Alliance of Resident Theatres (A.R.T./New York): Health and Wealth: Supporting NYC Theatremakers through Data and Insights  

A.R.T./New York will integrate Portrait of New York State Artists Survey data into the analysis and publication of their comprehensive field survey, Health and Wealth: Supporting NYC Theatremakers through Data and Insights. Findings from the Portrait of New York State Artists Survey will contextualize the experiences of individual workers within theatrical institutions, situate the needs, challenges, and opportunities of A.R.T./New York members within the broader arts ecosystem, and highlight ways that theater artists and administrators can best support the policy goals and resource needs of artists across the city and state.  

• Brooklyn Arts Council: NYC Artists Income: Interactive Digital Map   

Brooklyn Arts Council will incorporate data from the Portrait of New York State Artists Survey into an interactive digital map that will be used to advocate for the economic security and well-being of artists in New York City. The map will illustrate how artists’ pay varies by location and demographic filters, using a model developed from survey data to estimate median incomes for artists in different fields and demographics, with opportunities for community members & policymakers to interact in order to bring the map to life.   

• Dance/NYC: “Our New York City Dance” Campaign 

Dance/NYC will incorporate data from the Portrait of New York State Artists Survey into the “Our New York City Dance” Campaign, which aims to create a vibrant and diverse dance ecology that values and protects the art of dance and its workers and offers just, attainable, and sustainable professions. By leveraging statewide data alongside the Dance Industry Census and State of NYC Dance 2023 findings, Dance/NYC will contextualize its advocacy initiatives and campaign beyond the NYC metro area and help dance workers understand their unique challenges, as well as how they relate to those faced by other artists.  

• Entertainment Community Fund: Affordable Housing for Artists in NYC 

Entertainment Community Fund will incorporate data from the Portrait of New York State Artists Survey into their ongoing advocacy to improve arts workers’ access to affordable housing in New York City. The data will help decision-makers better understand the artist population as a diverse community inclusive of all protected classes – many of whom are being displaced from New York City due to rising housing costs – and build the case for an artist preference policy in housing lotteries.  

• New York City Arts in Education Roundtable: Teaching Artists Compensation and Employment Research  

New York City Arts in Education Roundtable will conduct a comprehensive analysis of Portrait of New York State Artists data and complementary surveying to understand current teaching artist compensation and employment trends in New York City. A culminating report and wrap-around programming will be used to educate, spark dialogue, and advocate for teaching artists’ fair compensation and employment practices with cultural organizations, government agencies, and philanthropic partners.  

• New York Communities for Change: Fund Excluded Workers Coalition / Unemployment Bridge Program  

New York Communities for Change will incorporate data from the Portrait of New York State Artists Survey into the efforts of the Fund Excluded Workers coalition, which is advocating to establish a permanent unemployment program in New York State that doesn’t exclude workers based on immigration status or the type of work they do. Data and experiences from BIPOC and undocumented artists will be added to member trainings, leadership development workshops, and leaflet materials shared with elected officials, amplifying the important role that artists continue to play – alongside undocumented individuals, consultants, and other people working in the gig economy – in the broad-based movement to address gaps in New York’s safety net.  

• New Yorkers for Culture and Arts: Arts and Culture Fact Sheets 

New Yorkers for Culture and Arts (NY4CA) will collaborate with New York Folklore to integrate Portrait of New York State Artists Survey data into a series of one-page fact sheets for every county in New York State. These documents will serve as valuable tools educating the public on the importance of culture in their communities, and reveal a correlation between the needs of individual artists in New York and the ways that NY4CA can continue to advocate for the public sector to address those needs.

• One Nation One Project: Artist Compensation and Wellbeing Research  

One Nation One Project will incorporate data from the Portrait of New York State Artists Survey into its assessment of employment, compensation, and wellbeing among artists in 18 U.S. cities. Findings will be disseminated among One Nation One Project’s network of leaders across municipal government, healthcare, public health systems, and philanthropy, as well as to artists to support their advocacy for fair rates and forms of payment.  

• Syracuse University School of Information Studies: New York State Artists Data Visualizations  

Syracuse School of Information Studies faculty members Jeff Hemsley and Rachel Ivy Clarke will incorporate data from the Portrait of New York State Artists Survey into print, textile, and digital visualizations that communicate information about artists in New York State. Findings and visualizations will be incorporated into public displays and made accessible and available online for others’ use in statewide campaigns and projects.  

• The Workers Lab: Artists as Excluded Workers Case Study  

The Workers Lab will incorporate data from the Portrait of New York State Artists Survey into a collaborative analysis of the ways artists combine different types of work to achieve financial stability, and the conditions that facilitate greater engagement in social and civic movements. The experience of New York State artists will be published as a case study of excluded workers, contextualized by and integrated into the ongoing Gig Worker Learning Project and Gig Economy Data Hub.

• Whippoorwill Arts: Fair Play Initiative  

Whippoorwill Arts will incorporate data from the Portrait of New York State Artists Survey into the Fair Play Initiative, a campaign that seeks to ensure that public dollars spent on art actually get to the artists. The coalition is working with four Bay Area cities to include musicians in municipal wage standards. Data will support case-making for fair musician pay and safe working conditions; focus groups and civic engagement with musicians; and the development of an advocacy toolkit that can be adopted to advocate for ethical pay standards for musicians’ labor across the U.S. 

Creatives Rebuild New York

Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY) is a three-year, $125 million initiative that provides guaranteed income and employment opportunities to artists across New York State. CRNY believes that artists are workers who deserve equitable, sustainable support structures and that improving the lives of artists is paramount to the vitality of New York State’s collective social and economic wellbeing. Fiscally sponsored by Tides Center, CRNY represents a $125 million funding commitment, anchored by $115 million from the Mellon Foundation and $5 million each from the Ford Foundation and Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Learn more at creativesrebuildny.org.

Photo credit: Faith Ringold.