Equity is not about US vs THEM. It’s about US, period. We need to be given the same value, we need our voices to be part of policy making, we need larger institutions and government to align with us on this and to finally allow people like us to benefit directly from public monies.

Funding Justice is Racial Justice.

Arts Workers imagine, build and transform Communities.

Art creates culture. Arts Workers must be at the center of NYC culture.

We join together in solidarity.

NEW YORK CITY — Arts Workers will gather in solidarity on Saturday May 8^th to demand immediate financial relief and a long-term commitment to funding artists and marginalized communities that prioritizes those hardest hit by Covid-19. New York artists suffered a devastating year of neglect because the government refused to consider independent artists and cultural workers as Workers and small arts non-profits as Businesses. The message to the government: Historically, trickle-down funding leaves independent and marginalized Arts Workers last and chronically underfunded. Funding Justice is Racial Justice. As the state is poised to receive an estimated $12B in federal relief funds and the city to receive an estimated $6B, Arts Workers propose the following five principles to provide immediate relief, enable the sector to open safely, and help rebuild New York's state and city economies:

1. Recognition of Arts Workers as Vital for our Communities.

In moments of crisis and pain, the work of artists helps us to heal, build and transform. Arts Workers can be part of the solution to New York’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis - in the immediate through vaccine and testing messaging and support, and in the long term by bringing culture and the poetry in all arts forms to communities experiencing trauma and grief. While communities routinely receive proven positive outcomes in economy, public health, education, and safety from Arts Workers’ labor, our government has historically underinvested and inequitably distributed the resources their work requires, further marginalizing our most vulnerable populations. Arts Workers must be the primary beneficiaries of relief funds to create a just and robust recovery of the cultural assets of our city and state.

2. Financial Relief with Equity for the Public Good.

Arts workers imagine, build and transform communities. Art creates culture. Black, Indigenous, POC, Disabled/Deaf, Immigrant, Elders, Women, LGBTQIA+, and independent Arts Workers must be at the center of NYC culture to achieve equity. Relief money must flow directly to Arts Workers whose survival is at risk and who have been traditionally excluded from operational grants, programs and labor protections. An immediate & long-term commitment to funding communities in our art ecosystem that prioritizes historically marginalized Arts Workers will bring equity to the distribution of public money. Equity and art are both a public good.

3. Financial Relief as Precedent for Systemic Changes.

The government must stop treating independent Arts Workers and small arts organizations as too small to fund. Organizations with greater capacity and access must acknowledge the unfair influence their size gives them; their work depends on Arts Workers and smaller artist-led groups and they must restructure their organizations and advocacy to reflect this reality. In this historic moment, government relief should prioritize this idea and set precedents for revamping cultural funding by considering artists as Workers, cultural workers as Workers, and small arts nonprofits as Businesses. Government agencies must distribute relief equitably and relief funds should pave the way to address the normalized inequality of the art field. Equity places marginalized Arts Workers at the center of advocacy and this must be the future of arts funding in New York City and State.

4. Workforce Program.

New York Arts Workers need a long-term, robust, and multilayered workforce program to center them as workers and small community-based art nonprofits as platforms for workers. Art fuels culture and culture fuels the economy that strengthens our social fabric and ensures our quality of life; the labor of Arts Workers is essential to everything that we love about New York and this must be reflected in our budgets. Livable wages, health and other benefits, and prioritizing direct funding to marginalized artists must be achieved through a bold art workforce program that builds upon the legacy of programs like the WPA and CETA models.

5. Expansion of the State/ City Budget for the Arts.

Doubling a NYS Council on the Arts budget that continues to exclude Arts Workers from direct grants and small art nonprofits from operational grant awards does not provide adequate relief because NYSCA and DCLA don’t provide equitable funding in the first place. The vast majority of arts funding in New York City and State goes to the 34 Cultural Institutions Groups (CIGs) who are not getting enough funding as it is. Independent Arts Workers and small arts organizations need a pie of their own. Additionally, equity and art as a public good stretches beyond NYSCA and DCLA. Arts Workers deserve relief from DOL and DOE and other agencies for the work they do that touches many facets of life in NY. An equitable plan for the distribution of relief to the arts now should include this approach and serve as a blueprint for future arts funding.

Without Arts Workers, there is no art.

Without Arts Workers, there are no arts organizations.

Without Arts Workers, our arts spaces are not public cultural assets but just empty buildings.

“We are an ecosystem: while Broadway and large institutions are an important part of our sector, they are only the tip of the iceberg. The lion’s share of arts and culture consists of small-budget arts organizations, independent Arts Workers who are microbusinesses, and small, family-owned, for-profit businesses and studios. The arts ecosystem cannot exist without Arts Workers.”

- Alejandra Cifuentes, Arts Worker/ ED Dance NYC

Funding must come from the ground up because a rising tide lifts all boats, while trickle-down causes everyone to sink.

INTENTION LANGUAGE CREDIT: The intentions above contain language collected from recommendation proposals written by various Arts Workers in our community*. They are the result of collaborative efforts by Arts Workers and allies including:

• Aimee Todoroff, Arts Worker, The League of Independent Theaters*

• Alejandra Duque Cifuentes, Arts Worker/ ED Dance NYC*

• Amy Schwartzman, Arts Worker

• Chris LaCass, Arts Worker Ally/ Save Our Storefronts

• Erez Ziv, Arts Worker

• Heidi Russell, Arts Worker/ Arts Activist/ Founder of International Women Artists' Salon

• Konstance Patton, Arts Worker

• Lauren Miller, Arts Worker

• Melody Capote, Arts Worker/ ED Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute

• Orietta Crispino, Arts Worker

• Ximena Garnica, Arts Worker/ Founder of the Cultural Solidarity Fund/ Interdisciplinary & Multidisciplinary Artist

WHAT:

Arts Workers (Artists & Independent Cultural Workers) Rally To Demand Equitable Financial Relief Now & As A Precedent For Systemic Change

WHEN:

May 8, 2021

12PM - 2PM

WHERE:

Foley Square (between Lafayette, Worth and Centre Streets)

WHO:

NYC Arts Workers, small community-grounded organizations, and supporters of Arts Workers.

For a full list of organizers and endorsements, please click here.

SIGN UP:

Click here to: Endorse the rally / Volunteer / Organize

WHY:

Because NYC Arts Workers need a city budget with dedicated relief funding for small arts & cultural businesses and individual Arts Workers that reflects arts & culture's substantial societal benefit.

Because the state budget excluded small arts nonprofits from the largest bucket of small business relief & doubled a NYSCA budget that never included general operating support for small arts nonprofits & never gave direct grants to independent Arts Workers.

Because Arts Workers are facing homelessness, food & housing insecurity and there is no city or state relief being offered.

Because for decades cultural equity & justice have been an add-on, a special item or line when all our cultural platforms should have equity at the center.

Because the WPA Bill creating a Workforce Program for Arts Workers failed & there is not a comprehensive, long-term Workforce Program being implemented.

Because ARTS WORKERS ARE NECESSARY WORKERS!

ACCESSIBILITY: ASL interpretation for the speeches part of the rally will be provided.

FACEBOOK: Facebook.com/ArtsWorkersRally

INSTAGRAM: Instagram.com/ArtsWorkersRally

TWITTER: Twitter.com/ArtWorkerRally

LINKTREE: Linktr.ee/ArtsWorkersRally