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NYC Arts in Education Roundtable

Testimony to the New York City Council Committee on Cultural Affairs — March 12, 2024

4 minutes

Hearing: Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations
Hon. Carlina Rivera, Chair

Thank you to Chair Carlina Rivera, fellow Committee Members and Council staff, for your passion, leadership, and support of arts, culture, and arts education in New York City. 

My name is Kimberly Olsen, and I am the Executive Director of the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable. We are an arts service organization that works with thousands of artists, educators, and cultural organizations each year to improve and advance arts education in NYC. I’m testifying as part of the It Starts with the Arts coalition — calling on our city to prioritize funding for arts in NYC schools and communities in the FY25 budget

The creative sector accounts for 13% of the city’s total economic output. 1 out of every $8 in NYC’s economic activity can be traced directly or indirectly to the arts and culture sector. Despite this potential for income generation, cuts to the Department of Cultural Affairs and NYC Public Schools jeopardize not only the creative economy but the very fabric of our city’s prosperity and well-being. 

The Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Development Fund are a critical resource for NYC’s arts education community. For many organizations in our membership, the impact of CDF and cultural initiative funding enables organizations to provide critical arts education services to young New Yorkers in every neighborhood across the five boroughs. We often say at the Roundtable — it starts with the arts. These afterschool arts programs, field trips, arts partnerships, teen programs, and more are funded by CDF seed and grow the next generation of arts workers and audiences.

As an arts service organization working with more than 4,000 arts workers each year, the immediate impact of budget cuts has been keenly felt. It has meant a stark uptick in the number of teaching artists expressing concerns about unemployment, delayed or canceled residencies, housing insecurities, and questioning the overall sustainability of working in the arts in NYC.

Furthermore, these cuts will have an immediate and long-lasting impact on our city’s young people. Arts and culture organizations provide an essential lifeline of support to New Yorkers of all ages. More than 600 arts and cultural organizations partnered with NYC Public Schools in the 2022-2023 school year — the most ever — in part attributed to federal stimulus money (set to expire 6/30), increased funding at DCLA (which has since been cut), and a one-time infusion of Title IV funds. Cultural partnerships have become even more critical as NYC public schools experienced a loss of 425 full-time certified arts teachers (14.88% decrease) from FY2020 to FY2023 — leaving thousands more students without a dedicated arts teacher in their school. A note on transparency: we don’t know what schools/districts have been impacted. This type information has been released publicly since 2014 in the Comptroller’s State of the Arts report and in an Open Data set from 2019-2020.

The Mayor’s proposed cuts harm the heartbeat of our city’s economic and cultural growth. We join our colleagues in asking the city to: 

  • Reverse the November and Preliminary Budget Cuts to culture – that’s $20 million in FY24 and $15.5M in FY25. 
  • Restore and baseline last year’s one-time addition of $45 million to CIGs and all cultural groups across the city
  • Fully fund City Council initiatives including Support for Arts Instruction, CASA for school kids, Su-Casa for seniors, Cultural Immigrant Initiative, and the Coalition of Theaters of Color
  • Improve data transparency by compelling NYC Public Schools to provide a school-by-school breakdown of the state of arts education in public schools.
  • Require DOE arts funding be spent on the arts ($15M): Boost the per student arts allocation to $100 from $80.47, and require that money be spent on arts education.
  • Ensure Every School Has a Certified Arts Teachers ($38M): Ensure that all schools have at least one certified arts teacher, closing the equity gap for more than 315 schools.
  • Replace Expiring Federal Covid-Era Funds for Arts ($30M): Save arts education programs on the chopping block due to $1B in expiring federal funds, including arts initiatives, programming to support student social-emotional wellbeing and academic recovery through the arts, and Summer Rising.

Our city’s young people represent the vitality of our city. Please prioritize investment in arts education and in NYC’s future because success starts with the arts. 

Thank you for your attention and consideration.

Kimberly Olsen
Executive Director
NYC Arts in Education Roundtable
kolsen@nycaieroundtable.org