Thank you to Chair Won, fellow Committee Members and Council staff, for your advocacy and championing of paying nonprofits on time. 

My name is Kimberly Olsen, and I am the Executive Director of the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable — a nonprofit arts service organization working to improve and advance NYC arts education in partnership with more than 300 arts organizations each year. I’m here as part of the It Starts with the Arts coalition, echoing the urgent need for timely payment and contracting.

More than 700 cultural organizations worked in partnership with schools last year to bridge that gap, broaden access to world-class artists, and provide external funding to schools. Unfortunately, delays in CDF award notices, DYCD payments, and NYCPS’ MTAC contracting process (averaging 16-28 months by a recent member survey) impede these efforts, causing lost educational opportunities and financial hardship for both nonprofit arts organizations and an estimated 5,000 Teaching Artists working in our city. 

As a result – Teaching Artists, a vital workforce within our city’s cultural and educational landscape, face unstable employment and inconsistent compensation. For hiring organizations engaged in contracts with city government agencies, persistent delays in payment and the reimbursement-model of contracting can greatly impact an organization’s cash flow — forcing organizations to take out loans and balance the financial stability of the organization with timely payment and liveable wages. As one organization wrote to me yesterday, delays in contracting have “severely affected how much [arts education programs] our organization can provide knowing that we will most likely not get paid for major programs for several months.”

The fluctuating number of certified arts teachers adds another layer of complexity — as Teaching Artists are increasingly relied upon to fill gaps in arts instruction, yet often lack the same job security and benefits. In this case, even the months-long delay of CDF award letters can have a devastating impact when you are living paycheck to paycheck like many in the Teaching Artist community — ultimately harming their ability to live and work in NYC. 

This needs to change. The Roundtable and It Starts with the Arts coalition applaud the City Council, join their call to provide nonprofits with timely access to funds, and call for reform and transparency within NYC Public School’s MTAC process. 

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