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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Melissa Riker, Dance Maker and Advocate from Kinesis Project Dance Theater
6:02:51
ยท
3 min
Melissa Riker, a dance maker and advocate, testified about the importance of arts funding and respect for artists in New York City. She emphasized the need for timely grant disbursements, increased baseline funding for arts and culture, and including artists in funding conversations.
- Riker leads two small nonprofit organizations and co-runs two collectives focused on supporting underserved voices in the arts.
- She highlighted the challenges faced by artists, including late grant payments and the pressure to be resilient without adequate support.
- Riker called for adding $75 million to the arts and culture baseline budget and moving towards allocating 1% of the city budget to culture.
Melissa Riker
6:02:51
Good afternoon, Chair Rivera and members of the council and staff members.
6:02:56
My name is Melissa Reicher.
6:02:57
I'm a dance maker and advocate based in District 10, Inwood.
6:03:01
I lead two small nonprofit organizations, Kinesis Project Dance Theater and Manhattan Theatre Source, which produces the Estrogenious Festival.
6:03:09
I founded and co run two collectives, Women in Motion and the Pandemic Emergency Coalition Dance Rising.
6:03:20
Calling to bring attention to brave art and artists.
6:03:24
In my own work as a choreographer, I make large scale outdoor dance in New York City parks and public spaces.
6:03:30
I appreciate the testimony of the commissioner, supportive statements by the council members, and bright spots in the discussion of collaboration.
6:03:37
My interests are directly tied to the health of culture, the ability for me as a leader to support platforms for underserved voices, underheard voices, and pay the people who choose to join me in my own art and to make art accessible and available for every New Yorker.
6:03:54
I believe in the availability of art and artists to create dialogue in spaces where there is none, to offer trust, teach self healing, empathy, and confidence in a way that the echo chamber of social media, our current federal government, and funding landscape cannot.
6:04:10
Last year in 2024, I was thrilled to receive a small award from LMCC, a program directly supported by the generosity of this council.
6:04:19
I scheduled rehearsals and brought dancers into the studio in early spring.
6:04:23
However, that grant was then incredibly late and in the end that sweet and generous grant created substantial damage as it reflected poorly to my team my ability to pay artists on time.
6:04:36
Now in this year, we don't even know who the grantees are.
6:04:41
New York City can be proud of its art and artists.
6:04:43
We want you to be proud, but this pride must be prepared must be paired with respect.
6:04:49
New York City must treat us with respect as workers for with better understanding for creative timelines, not assuming that we can survive without support because we are resilient and because we've made it this far.
6:05:01
Pressure is exponential over time.
6:05:05
We are resilience but it is simply unkind to lean on our resilience asking us to be the frontline against fascism, misinformation, guiding intergenerational neighborhood communication to support our city.
6:05:18
To be very real, I barely have time to create the art I am put here to make, to make the difference you, I, and my community know I can as a maker of large scale public dances.
6:05:30
My request to the council and administration is centered on funding and deeper community.
6:05:35
Add 75,000,000 to the arts, culture baseline, and bring us into the conversation.
6:05:41
Ask us what process looks like to imagine with you, to fund with you, consider breaking the ceiling and move towards 1% for culture.
6:05:49
Please continue to push your colleagues to understand that the public facing arts of New York City do not exist without the creators of that art and that we live in every single district of New York City.
6:06:02
Thank you.