PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Kimberly Olsen, Executive Director of New York City Arts and Education Roundtable on Arts Workforce Development
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Kimberly Olsen, Executive Director of the New York City Arts and Education Roundtable, testified on the importance of workforce development in the arts and culture sector. She highlighted the significant employment numbers in New York City's creative industries and emphasized the need for continuous professional development in the sector.
- The Roundtable partners with CUNY Cultural Corps and provides various professional development opportunities, including a Teaching Artist Mentorship Program and an annual job fair.
- Olsen stressed the critical role of arts education in preparing students for the 21st-century workforce by developing essential skills.
- She recommended that arts education be present in all New York City schools and called for more intentional interaction between education, economic development, and arts policy leaders.
Kimberly Olsen
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Thank you, chair Rivera and the city council, for your support of the cultural workforce development in New York City.
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My name is Kim Olson, and I'm proud to be the executive director of the New York City Arts and Education Roundtable.
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We are an arts education service organization working to improve and advance arts ed in New York City through professional development, advocacy, re granting, and community building.
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I'm writing as part of the It Starts With the Arts Coalition to testify in the importance of workforce development opportunities in the arts and culture sector.
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According to the comptroller's most recent economic economy dashboard, together, New York City's creative industries employed an estimated 274,000 people in 2022, up 3.4% in 2017, and modestly exceeding the 2.2 increase in total employment in the city.
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A staggering 12.3 percent of our country's creative workforce jobs are based here in New York City alone.
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That's a lot of creative workers and a lot of creative jobs.
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We at the roundtable consider workforce development through the lens of continuing professionalization from recruitment and training into entry level positions through leadership development opportunities.
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We don't wanna just prepare folks to enter the workforce.
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We wanna support their development and training into more senior level positions so that they can continue to grow and work in the sector.
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For us, that takes the shape of partnering with CUNY Cultural Corps to provide professional development to their full cohort as well as hosting an intern.
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And, also, we work with hundreds of organizations and thousands of cultural workers each year, providing professional development opportunities to support growth at all points of the workforce.
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These opportunities, including our New York State Teaching Artist Mentorship Program, offer skills and network building as vehicles for career advancement and sustainability.
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We also host an annual job fair featuring 50 plus arts and cultural organizations each May at Hunter College.
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When talking about arts and workforce development, it would also be remiss if I didn't mention how critical arts education opportunities are to preparing our city's workforce of tomorrow.
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Research shows arts education programs prepare students for the 21st century workforce by developing the skills necessary to acquire and retain a job.
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Such competency is developed through these arts education opportunities, including program solving, attention to nuance, adaptability, empathy, visualization of goals and outcomes, decision making, and so much more.
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In addition to supporting general workforce competencies, arts competencies in and of themselves can be highly marketable in today's economy.
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It's for all these reasons that we recommend that arts education be present in all New York City Schools, and there are city works to facilitate more intentional interaction between education, economic development, and arts policy leaders.
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Meaningful workforce development programs today means a stronger cultural workforce tomorrow.
1:59:06
Thank you.