PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Sarah Calderón, Executive Director of Creatives Rebuilding New York
2:50:45
·
138 sec
Sarah Calderón, Executive Director of Creatives Rebuilding New York (CRNY), testified about CRNY's $125 million statewide initiative to promote financial stability for New York artists and organizations. She highlighted their programs providing guaranteed income and employment opportunities for artists across the state.
- CRNY provided guaranteed income for 2,400 artists over 18 months and worked with 100 community-based organizations to employ 300 artists for 2 years at $65,000 per year with benefits.
- Calderón endorsed the call for portable benefits and mentioned their partnership with TribeWorks to support artists at smaller organizations.
- She recommended expanding accessible internships and apprenticeship opportunities in New York Cultural Institutions, including growing the CUNY Cultural Core program.
Sarah Calderón
2:50:45
Good afternoon, chairperson Rivera and members of the committee.
2:50:48
My name is Sarah Calderon.
2:50:49
I'm the executive director of Creatives Rebuilding New York.
2:50:52
Thank you for this opportunity to testify today.
2:50:55
CRNY was a is a 3 year, $125,000,000 statewide initiative funded by private philanthropy to promote the financial stability of New York artists and organizations that employ them.
2:51:07
We believe artists are workers who deserve equitable, sustainable support structures and whose well-being is vital to New York's social and economic well-being.
2:51:15
We provide a guaranteed income for 24 100 artists, over 18 months across New York state and worked with 100 community based organizations to provide artists employment, a salary of $65,000 per year, and benefits for 300 artists throughout the state for 2 years.
2:51:32
I'll mention one thing key key thing building on and endorsing Lucy's call for portable benefits.
2:51:38
We ran this employment program in partnership with TribeWorks, a portable benefits platform that supported our artists who were at organizations who did not have or were too small to have benefits and the ability to employ artists.
2:51:49
We have research about this as well, and I'm happy to share the positive results.
2:51:55
As Lucy reported, right, artists, in New York are making 60% of artists are making less than $25,000 a year, and and our CRNY survey conducted of more than 23100 artists, more than half of respondents have no financial safety net and carry unmanageable debt.
2:52:16
For our first proposal, we are interested in supporting sort of internships and apprenticeships.
2:52:23
There are significant barriers to employment and nonprofit arts administration, specifically high educational requirements, low pay, and few opportunities for on the job, pay.
2:52:33
And we recommend advancing advancing a set of parallel efforts to expand accessible internships and apprenticeship opportunities in New York Cultural Institutions, beginning with growing the capacity of the CUNY Cultural, core program.
Tony Mazzocchi
2:52:47
Thank you.
Sarah Calderón
2:52:47
A parallel excuse me?
Carlina Rivera
2:52:54
Sarah, they just mean your your time is up.
2:52:56
So if you just wanna wrap up the thought, and we'll be sure to read your full testimony that's submitted.
Sarah Calderón
2:53:00
That's okay.
2:53:01
You can just take my full testimony.
2:53:02
Thank you so much.
Carlina Rivera
2:53:03
Thank you.