Panelists Ponder: “Can Artists Survive in New York City?”

By Phyllis Eckhaus

MAURA CUFFIE-PETERSON, director of strategic initiatives at Creatives Rebuild New York, participates as a panelist. Photo credit: Jeremy Weine.

When the world lets you down and gets you down, how much do you try to change the world and how much do you try to change yourself?

That dilemma was the unexpected undercurrent of “ ‘Arts for Living,’ Can Artists Survive in New York City?,” an April 9th symposium sponsored by the Henry Street Settlement and held at their Abrons Art Center. In a far-ranging discussion that zig-zagged from the visionary to the purely practical, panelists offered passionate aspirations for a better world and Zen-ish strategies for coping with the existential troubles New York City-based artists face today.

The discussion began with contradiction. Valentina Di Liscia, the moderator and news editor of Hyperallergic, asked, “Are artists actually leaving New York City in significant numbers or are they staying?”

“Yes and yes,” Maura Cuffie-Peterson, director of strategic initiatives at Creatives Rebuild New York responded. “Yes, artists are leaving New York City and New York state because of affordability and yes, artists are staying…because they can’t afford to leave.” Reporting on her organization’s 2022 survey of 13,000 New York artists, she described the results as “pretty yikes.” Sixty percent of respondents had a median household income of $25,000 or less, and two-thirds had no emergency savings. ”When you drill down into important demographics like race, it gets even worse,” she noted. “Only one in five Black artists has enough cash to cover emergencies.”

Ashley Ferro-Murray, program director for the arts at the Doris Duke Foundation, echoed that portrait of profound unmet need. Among the grant programs she oversees is one that has previously provided six performing artists a year with individual grants of up to $550,000. She reported that in the absence of a social safety net, “what we find is that artists need these unrestricted funds to cover housing costs, pay off debt, [pay] for surgery that’s been put off, start that emergency fund, think about retirement for the very first time, [or perhaps] invest in elder and child care.”

That revelation, she said, has led the foundation to ask “what does thrivability look like for artists?”— and to think about things ranging from guaranteed income to protections for gig workers “because we know so many artists wear multiple hats, and are gig workers in this economy.” Moderator Di Liscia responded half-jokingly, “What I hear you saying is that we have to take down capitalism.”

A Guaranteed Income?

And indeed, Cuffie-Peterson segued from her bleak data to a decidedly non-capitalist dream for the future. She and her organization are passionate advocates for guaranteed basic income, having administered a three-year, $125 million initiative providing “no strings attached monthly payments for 18 months” to 2,400 New York state artists, selected from among 22,000 who applied.

The program took place during a time when there were about 130 guaranteed income pilots of various kinds nationwide. “This is where I get on my soapbox,” Cuffie-Peterson declared. “It’s deceptively simple—if people need money, give them money, period. People are actually trustworthy to address their needs on their own terms….If you don’t want to trust me, the research is out there.” She added “to all my philanthropy friends, we can do it on a bigger scale. Let’s go for it!” Cuffie-Peterson expressed hope that government would then take the lead from philanthropy to scale up even further.

She urged the audience to connect with the New York State Cash Alliance, “a coalition of dozens of really important grassroots organizations fighting for a guaranteed income across the state….We’re doing big things with the Cash Alliance because coalition is how we move forward. I recognize we’re in a scary time, when we think about ‘should the government be doing this?’ but we also have to be fighting at every forefront, right?”

Challenges for the Working Artist

Panelists underscored the economic vulnerability that still exists when an artist’s visibility is perceived as “success.” Cuffie-Peterson told of giving a guaranteed income award to a twice Grammy-nominated artist whom she had to contact via her daughter because her phone had been cut off.

Panelist and performing artist Nile Harris noted widespread ignorance of what it costs to mount a performance. “Artists are like small businesses” especially in the performing arts “where these numbers start looking really fancy to people. They’re like, ‘Oh, didn’t you get that $40,000 grant?’ I’m like, ‘Girl, I had to pay ten people for three months of labor.’”

Reframing Success

Asked how he makes it as “an actual living artist here in New York City,” Harris jokingly answered “credit card debt, Goodwill and roommates,” then more seriously acknowledged survival strategies—among them, “multiple streams of income,” including his ongoing work as a nonprofit administrator.

Harris emphasized the importance of doing his non-artist work “in places that appreciate and value” that he’s an artist so he doesn’t feel like he’s living a “Hannah Montana double life” and receives “flexibility and compassion, love and understanding.” He also noted the importance of attitude, a “humble understanding” that his artistic practice was “a vocation” that was never going to be “a profit-earning endeavor. And that’s what’s so fun about the experimental arts, that freedom because it’s not tied to commercial investment.”

So how do artists establish their value? Cuffie-Peterson enthusiastically recommended a free online resource and platform, “Artists U” (like University) that is “pretty profound….It’s a sort of meditation to walk through, like what does ‘enough’ meant to me as an artist?”

The symposium also featured sociologist and CUNY professor Sharon Zukin and Anne del Castillo, the senior policy advisor for creative sector strategy at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. They both spoke to the paucity of affordable housing and work space for artists, among other issues.

The full discussion is available on video at Henry Street’s YouTube channel.