Many individuals and industries have been affected by the World Trade Center attack, including the cultural community of artists and arts organizations, which is facing a difficult financial future particular to its sector. Historically undercapitalized, its support system of contributed and earned income from both public and private sources has been, in recent years, uneven and fragile. Before September 11, the economy of the creative community was of great concern; because of September 11, the creative community now faces extraordinary challenges. We estimate that there are more than 200 arts organizations and several thousand artists below 14th Street.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is spearheading the development of the New York Arts Recovery Fund and, on behalf of the field, will serve as its fiscal and administrative hub. The Fund combines the strength of key New York service organizations by creating a collaborative, comprehensive effort to address immediate, short-term, and long-term challenges specifically facing New York's artists and arts organizations most affected by the tragedy.

Currently, NYFA is in conversation with Collaborative Partners who will serve as a steering committee for the Fund, including the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York (ART/NY), the Arts and Business Council, the Asian American Arts Alliance, the Association of Hispanic Arts, the Harlem Arts Alliance, the New York City Arts Coalition, and the Nonprofit Finance Fund. A limited number of additional partners may be added shortly. In cooperation with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, the Collaborative Partners will work together, as appropriate to their individual constituency.

The New York Arts Recovery Fund is a four-part initiative which coordinates and builds on each organization's individual and collective strengths concerning

• Information Resources
  We will work with other arts and non-arts organizations to gather and distribute information concerning existing government and private resources available to assist with the effects of September 11th. The program will then assist artists and arts organizations in understanding the rules and regulations of the government and private disaster relief funding agencies. Contact information will be available for agencies such as FEMA, the Small Business Administration, the American Red Cross, and others that are helping those in need. Through written materials, Web site information, and workshops, consultants will provide technical assistance to the field through one-on-one sessions and group meetings to help artists and organizations navigate the technical aspects of obtaining assistance from the appropriate agencies.

• Advocacy
  We will work with others to articulate and advance the voice and needs of artists and arts organizations in the relief and recovery programs and services being developed on behalf of other individuals and organizations affected by the tragedy. Such an advocacy role is essential to ensure that artists, the arts, and the entire cultural community receive an appropriate portion of public and private funds being allocated for this effort. Moreover, with significant changes in New York City's government in the next few months, understanding both the short-term and long-term needs and the role of artists and the arts in rebuilding the City is more essential than ever.

• Grants
  We will develop a rapid emergency grants program, in collaboration with the Non-Profit Finance Fund and the Artists Community Federal Credit Union, designed to meet the needs of artists and arts organizations. Using its extensive grantmaking experience for individual artists and organizations, NYFA will develop a regrant program for artists and organizations in all disciplines; ART/NY will build on its expertise in theater and develop a comparable regrant program for the needs of theaters. Grants will be given on a competitive basis through a review process, based on criteria developed by the Collaborative Partners, with the most severely affected organizations receiving first priority. The application and review process for artists and arts organizations used by the arts rebuilding program following the 1989 San Francisco earthquake will serve as a model.

• Public Programs
  We will work with others in the field to develop marketing and public promotion campaigns about the arts for communities, such as the efforts of the New York City Arts Coalition and the Arts and Business Council and work with others to provide listings of arts and cultural public programs and services for the general public during these difficult times.

A number of Advisors, which will also include private funders, will be asked to help develop each of the Fund's components. It is also expected that we will continue to work in collaboration with government agencies at the city, state, and federal levels (including NEA, NEH, and IMLS). Others in the arts and non-arts communities will also be involved to develop complementary strategies that meet the recovery needs of the field.

The primary focus of the program will be on those living and working below Canal Street. The next priority will be those located below 14th Street. Depending on the availability of funds, the circles could be widened to include artists and organizations in other areas of the city.

While it is clear that those artists and organizations in the vicinity of the Trade Center need immediate attention, it is evident that, as in other industries, the entire New York City, if not national, arts community is concerned about the ripple effect of this disaster. The combination of a decline in contributed income for arts organizations, and the demand on funders for broader relief efforts, means that the arts community as a whole will be facing an extraordinary challenge to sustain its programs and services, employ its staff, and maintain its presenting, working, and living spaces.

Two leadership gifts have been made to get this program underway. The Rockefeller Foundation has fully funded the Information Resources and Advocacy parts of the program with a $350,000 grant, and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation has committed $250,000 for the re-grant program. Several other foundations have expressed an interest in supporting this program and proposals are currently before their boards. In addition, artists and others from around the country have been working to make additional contributions, including benefit concerts in Seattle and Ohio, and an art sale by the Thompson Street Merchants Association in SoHo.

In this time of uncertainty for all of us, a collaborative and unified effort among the arts community and funders is critical to help meet the needs of artists and arts organizations to rebuild and move forward.

For more information about the New York Arts Recovery Fund, please visit http://www.nyfa.org/9-11.htm or call 212-366-6900 ext. 277.

Information was gathered from a total of 1,500 New Yorkers via surveys, one-on-one interviews, focus groups, and town-hall meetings. The report includes a first-ever cross-borough poll of 800 New Yorkers about the role of arts and culture in their lives-and its findings emphatically conclude that New Yorkers want more of both.

According to Theodore S. Berger, Executive Director of NYFA, who developed the collaborative initiatives that created the report, Culture Counts was created to coincide with the city's dramatic shift in political leadership after the November elections. Following the attacks of September 11, a new Prologue has been added to the report to provide context for its findings. The report was shared with Mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg and staff, will be distributed to all members of the City Council, and is also available on NYFA's Web site -- http://www.nyfa.org/culturalblueprint.htm -- or by request.

Mr. Berger said that Culture Counts emphasizes the need for a comprehensive cultural policy for New York City, and serves as a resource for decision-makers, in both city government and the private sector "The report is based on a conviction that the cultural community needs cohesive cultural policies, forceful advocacy, and imaginative and pragmatic planning to reach its full potential," he said. "Now there is a particular urgency as cultural institutions, large and small, must contribute more than ever to the city's health, not only by drawing and inspiring visitors who come to experience the cultural riches of our city, but also persevering as anchors in the educational, spiritual, and emotional lives of New Yorkers."

The report's Prologue, written by Margaret C. Ayers, President of NYFA's Board of Trustees, and Mr. Berger, states "While many individuals and industries have been affected by the World Trade Center attack, the cultural community is facing a difficult financial future. Historically undercapitalized, its support system of contributed and earned income, both public and private, has been, in recent years, uneven and fragile. Before September 11, the creative community's economy was of great concern; because of September 11, we now have ample cause for apprehension."

In addition to emphasizing that the arts serve as a community anchor for the city, the report reiterates the role of the arts as an economic engine, with a total economic impact of over $12 billion per year, and a 240 percent return on the city's current arts investment.

The Project Director for Culture Counts is Kinshasha Holman Conwill, former director of The Studio Museum in Harlem. "It is valuable to have the passionate positions of New Yorkers-citizens from all walks of life, from each of the five boroughs-collected in one document," said Ms. Conwill. "Not surprisingly, New Yorkers care deeply about the arts and culture, in their personal lives and in their neighborhoods, particularly as cultural organizations and artists have risen to contribute to the healing of our city and our nation."

Co-chairs of the report's Citizens Advisory Committee are Linda LeRoy Janklow, Chair of Lincoln Center Theater's Board of Directors, and Richard D. Parsons, co-Chief Operating Officer of AOL Time Warner. "As we face the largest change in city government in our history, the obvious importance of the cultural sector to the city's prosperity and destiny needs a driving vision to help sustain and expand New York's leadership in the century ahead," said Ms. Janklow.

"Culture Counts is an indispensable tool in designing and carrying out that vision," said Mr. Parsons. "It marks the beginning of a vital discourse among New York's citizens, its leaders, and its cultural sector."

Key components of Culture Counts are studies commissioned by NYFA, including the first-ever survey of public opinion about the arts developed by the Fordham Institute for Innovation in Social Policy; detailed maps of all cultural activity in the five boroughs prepared by the New York Public Interest Research Group; and information about real estate challenges facing arts organizations prepared by the Center for an Urban Future. Culture Counts also includes a detailed analysis of the Department of Cultural Affairs, examples of innovative funding strategies in New York and in other key cities, and historic funding patterns. It additionally offers a report on national cultural policy by arts consultant Caron Atlas and an examination of the role of individual artists by writer Roberto Bedoya, both written before September 11.

The primary conclusions of the 78-page report are that New Yorkers see numerous benefits from the arts, but that there are significant barriers to access, particularly for poor children and the elderly. The report finds that almost half of New York's adults go to musical performances and museums, with a third regularly attending theater. A majority of those polled say that the arts lead them to think more imaginatively and see things from other people's perspectives. Most wish they had engaged in arts and culture even more in their earlier years.

It strongly recommends a reorganization of the city's Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), the principal agency for city arts funding created in 1976, to empower the DCA to operate more effectively. It notes that the agency receives a declining share of funds each year as a percentage of the city's overall spending, which has already cost the DCA and New York's arts and cultural groups nearly $250 million in inflation-adjusted dollars. It urges that the DCA receive increased funding to more uniformly support the city's large institutions, mid-sized organizations, and small and emerging groups and artists in the five boroughs. The report reveals that nearly three-quarters of New York's cultural groups currently receive little or no city support.

Culture Counts proposes four overriding strategies to guide the city's investment in arts and culture

• Create a comprehensive cultural policy with clear goals, standards, and methods of review and evaluation;

• Empower the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) to operate more effectively and provide better service to new and existing grantees through increased funding and staffing and more explicitly and clearly articulated grantmaking criteria;

• Ensure active participation in arts and culture through expanded public school programs, reduced admission costs for the underserved, and improved transportation and information;

• Develop long-term strategies to strengthen the cultural infrastructure.

Culture Counts is a special project of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). Following is an overview of the two key groups that helped to create the report

A Working Group included as advisors the directors, executive directors, presidents, and artistic directors of major city cultural institutions, representing a diverse cross-section of disciplines, constituencies, and perspectives from the cultural sector with a broad range of experience and expertise.

A Citizens Advisory Committee was composed of prominent private citizens concerned with New York's civic life, representing the diversity and breadth of the city and its various sectors from all boroughs (e.g., business, community, civic, cultural, educational, religious, etc.).

Complete lists of all participants are in the report.

The project received initial support from the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the New York Community Trust, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional grants were awarded by AT&T, the Ford Foundation, the William and Mary Greve Foundation, JP Morgan Chase, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Project consultant is Gregory Kandel, a management consultant for cultural organizations. Senior project advisors are Michael J. Gary, Joan T. Hocky, and Kerry McCarthy. Hallie S. Hobson is project assistant and assistant editor.

In the aftermath of September 11, a fiscal crisis has hit the New York arts community. In a passionate show of support, New York artists and performers from every discipline will bring together the arts community and its supporters for an evening of performance on Friday, January 11, 2002, 800 P.M. at the Hammerstein Ballroom at Manhattan Center.

Among the first artists to join the event, titled Arts on the High Wire, are Laurie Anderson, Paul Auster, Roy Blount Jr., Don Byron, Jim Carroll, Chuck Close, Bruce Davidson, Bill Irwin, Joe Jackson, Ben Katcher, Art Spiegelman, Elizabeth Streb, Suzanne Vega, The X-ecutioners, and John Zorn. In tribute to his 1974 walk between the Twin Towers, Philippe Petit will also walk the high wire.

All proceeds will benefit the newly formed New York Arts Recovery Fund, a post-9/11 emergency fund for the New York arts. The fund was created and spearheaded by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) in conjunction with several other arts organizations.

Tickets are priced at $25 and $15 and are available for purchase at http://www.nyfa.org/concert.htm or (212) 366-6900, ext. 278, and at the Hammerstein Ballroom at Manhattan Center Box Office, 311 W. 34th Street (open noon-500 P.M. daily). Donor-level boxes will also be available. For more information about the event, please go to http://www.nyfa.org/concert.htm.

"We may be facing the greatest crisis for the arts in our time," said Elizabeth Streb, acclaimed choreographer and MacArthur Fellow. "As artists and as New Yorkers, we have to take action to help each other and our community."

Arts on the High Wire will bring together an exceptional group of artists from all fields-writers, musicians, visual artists, performers and dancers-to show their support through performances.

The evening will celebrate the vital importance of the arts to the fiscal and spiritual health of New York and the country. The performances will emphasize the profound and inspiring relationship between New York and its artists.

"NYFA is grateful to the producers and performers of this inspiring event," said Theodore Berger, executive director of New York Foundation for the Arts. "The New York Arts Recovery Fund will help restore the vitality of artists and groups who suffered losses due to the tragedy of September 11, by creating a way for the public to channel support to this artistic community."

Arts on the High Wire was created by a collective of artists and producers, with all services being donated or provided at cost. The behind-the-scenes, backstage community is also committing its support. The Hammerstein Ballroom at Manhattan Center, Zaragunda Inc., Eyemag Media, See Factor and Rock Systems Audio are among the many companies involved.

Artists in the Branches sought to bring a variety of free arts events into neighborhoods, promote artists as integral members of the community, and provide the artists with a forum to present work and receive feedback from an audience. Artists participating in the program are past recipients of NYFA Fellowships-$7,000 grants awarded annually to 161 artists in all artistic disciplines chosen from as many as 4,000 applicants by a peer panel review process. Nearly 200 Fellows applied to participate in Artists in the Branches. The 20 artists chosen represent a talented group whose innovative work ensured a provocative and thrilling series of events. Events ranged from dance workshops to jazz performances to Web-based art presentations.

"NYFA's Artists in the Branches not only gives artists another venue to explore and perform their work, but it also gives the public a great opportunity to experience ground-breaking art," said Theodore S. Berger, Executive Director of NYFA. "We are thrilled to be collaborating with all three New York City public library systems-institutions dedicated to providing the public with free access to knowledge and culture."

All events were free and open to the public. This program was supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Challenge Program and with matching funds from Con Edison, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and Heathcote Art Foundation.

Opportunities for Artists

Details about these and other opportunities are available on Arts Wire's Web Site at http://www.artswire.org/current/calls.html
To submit "calls" for either artists or organizations, send email to artswire@artswire.org

Deadline: January 15, 2002, Artists, BRONX MUSEUM OF THE ARTS ARTIST IN THE MARKETPLACE (AIM) PROGRAM

Deadline January 15, 2002, Photographically-based works made in response to, but not necessarily documents of, September 11 memorials (defined in the broadest possible sense) and the role of photographs in our conception of the events, exhibition - THE PHOTOGRAPHIC RESOURCE CENTER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY

Deadline: January 15, 2002 - extended, Graphic Designers, Artists, FELICE LESSER DANCE THEATER GRAPHIC DESIGN COMPETITION

Deadline: February 15, 2002, Artists working in all media: visual, film/video, performing, and literary arts - work that responds to September 11, exhibition - PELHAM ART CENTER, PELHAM, NY

Deadline: For exhibition/publication in April 2002, NYC Student Art & Writing, (grades 7-13) ARTifacts: History, Healing and Hope: NYC Kids Respond To a World of Crisis, ALLIANCE FOR YOUNG ARTISTS AND WRITERS

Deadline: ongoing, Scholars, teachers and composers - new materials, THE AMERICAN GAMELAN INSTITUTE ARCHIVES

Deadline: ongoing, Artists - virtual response to 9/11/01, website - THEARTPROJECT - ARTISTS RESPOND TO TERRORISM

Deadline: ongoing, local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender & (even) heterosexual artists, writers, producers, composers, actors, singers, comedians, storytellers, performance artists, SYDNEY 2002 GAY GAMES VI CULTURAL FESTIVAL, October 25- November 9, 2002

Details about these and other jobs are available on Arts Wire's Web Site at http://www.artswire.org/current/jobs.html
To submit jobs to ARTS WIRE CURRENT JOBS, send email to joblist@artswire.org

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, The Guild Complex, (Chicago, IL)

MUSIC DEPARTMENT CHAIR, (tenure track) Montclair State University, (Upper Montclair, NJ)

FACULTY POSITIONS (4) - (tenure track) (Foundations/Cultural Perspectives; Jewelry-Metalsmithing/World Cultures; Foundations/Digital Arts and Culture; Digital Artist-Theorist) University of Wisconsin, (Milwaukee, WI)

LECTURER COMPUTER SCIENCE POSITIONS - (one position tenure track) Digital Arts Program, Stetson University, (DeLand, FL)

DIRECTOR, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, (Evanston, IL)

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR - MODERN DANCE, The Repertory Project, (Cleveland, OH)

GENERAL MANAGER, The Boston Landmarks Orchestra, (Boston, MA)

GENERAL MANAGER, Blyth Centre for the Arts/Blyth Festival, (Blyth, Canada)

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR - search reopened), Associated Writing Programs, (Fairfax, VA)

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, (Deer Isle, Maine)

VICE PRESIDENT, PROGRAMS, Association of Performing Arts Presenters, (Washington, DC)

PROGRAM OFFICER IN ARTS & CULTURE, The Ford Foundation, (New York City)

PROJECT COORDINATOR, The Music Center, (Los Angeles, CA)

MANAGER OF TECHNICAL SERVICES, (student center theatrical sound/light and a/v equipment) Columbia University, (New York, NY)

CURATOR, The John L. Wehle Gallery of Wildlife and Sporting Art, Genesee Country Village & Museum, Mumford NY

DEVELOPMENT OFFICER, Parsons School of Design, New School University, (New York City, NY)

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, The Joyce Theater, (New York City, NY)

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, Young Audiences of Massachusetts, (Somerville, MA)

DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, Director of Finance and Information Systems, Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival
(New York City, NY)

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER OR ASSOCIATE, Lark Theatre Company, (New York City, NY)

MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR, AIVF, (New York City, NY)

DIRECTOR OF SUBSCRIPTION CAMPAIGNS, The Florida Orchestra, (Tampa, FL)

INFORMATION SERVICES ASSISTANT, The American Music Center, (New York City, NY)

WEBSITE ADMINISTRATOR, (art marketing group) (Richmond, VA)

CUSTOMER SERVICE, (art marketing group) (Richmond, VA)

INTERNS, AIVF, (New York City, NY)

INTERNS, (Chinese Art Gallery) New York City, NY)

NYFA also gives capacity building grants and services to small arts organizations and provides artist career development support through workshops, hotlines, and print and electronic publications.

NYFA's annual budget of nearly $12 million comes from individual, corporate, foundation, and public sources, as well as NYFA's fiscal sponsorship services for artists and emerging organizations.

New York Foundation for the Arts
155 Avenue of the Americas, 14th Floor
New York NY 10013-1507
Phone 212-366-6900
Fax 212-366-1778
Web http://www.nyfa.org