New York City officials on May 6 announced the $25 million City Artists Corps, which will create jobs for 1,500 artists and is inspired by the Works Progress Administration effort that characterized Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal administration during the Great Depression. The city’s arts and recreation sector were hard hit by the crushing Covid-19 pandemic, sustaining a 60 percent drop in employment between February and April of last year alone, according to a recent report from the state comptroller’s office, which additionally showed that immigrant artists were disproportionately affected.
“Art and artists make New York City the cultural capital of the world, and the artistic community has an essential role in building a recovery for all of us,” said New York mayor Bill de Blasio in statement. “The City Artist Corps will tap into our greatest resource—New Yorkers’ boundless creativity—to create jobs and make our city more beautiful and vibrant than ever.”
The federally funded effort, the details of which have not yet been…
