Dance/NYC #ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers Conversation Series: May 21 & 26

New York – Dance/NYC will host a twelve-week Facebook Live Series of transparent conversations with arts workers These discussions will highlight the importance of the arts ecology, point to current challenges and offer considerations on our way forward as a field. Beginning May 21, 2020, this series  is a part of #ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers, a new online and social media campaign dedicated to the acknowledgement, representation and integration of dance and arts workers into the decision-making processes that will envision the future for New York City post-pandemic.

Following the series launch on Thursday, May 21, 2020 at 5:30pm, the series will take place every Tuesday from 5:30 – 7pm ET from May 26 through August 4, 2020 on Dance/NYC’s Facebook Page.

May 21 – #ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers: A Call to Action
May 26 – #ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers: Arts Educators Leading the Charge

#ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers: A Call to Action | May 21, 2020, 5:30pm-7:30pm
Join Dance/NYC in a discussion on the #ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers campaign and the importance of arts workers in the future of New York City with Alejandra Duque Cifuentes, Executive Director, Dance/NYC; Lucy Sexton, Executive Director, New Yorkers For Culture & Arts; Sade Lythcott, CEO, National Black Theatre; and Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Artistic Director, Elisa Monte Dance.

Arts Educators Leading the Charge | May 26, 2020, 5:30pm-7:00pm
Join Dance/NYC in a discussion with arts educators as they highlight their vital relationships with student populations and advocate for their continued role in education and the arts ecology with Ana Nery Fragoso,  Director of Dance Director of Dance, Office of Arts and Special Projects, NYC Department of Education;Kimberly Olsen, Managing Director, NYC Arts in Education Roundtable; Michelle Manzanales, Director, School of Dance, Ballet Hispánico; and Traci Lester,Executive Director, National Dance Institute.

“Dance/NYC believes dance and arts workers will be critical to New York City’s ability to thrive as a cultural capital post-pandemic.” said Alejandra Duque Cifuentes, executive director of Dance/NYC. “Through these series of Facebook Live conversations, we aim to highlight the = labor that dance and arts workers have been doing, and how they are positioning us for a thriving future.”

#ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers Campaign Video 
More than 150 videos were received from a cross-section of dance workers in all disciplines from choreographer to educator to administrator to fundraiser to be used in the campaign, including Alice Sheppard, Andrea Miller, Donald Borror, Eduardo Vilaro, Ephrat Asherie, Herman Cornejo, Josh Prince, Lane Harwell, Maleek Washington, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Mark Morris, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, among many others. Full list available here.

And Dance/NYC rolls out a new Facebook Live Series featuring conversations with arts workers, beginning May 21.

For reimagining our world
For moving toward an equitable future
For celebrating our diverse cultures
For maintaining our humanity
For strengthening education
For caring for our families
For fueling our economy
For showing the beauty of movement
For sustaining our emotional health
For demanding justice
For rebuilding New York City
As a dignified workforce
#ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers.

Artists serve New York City at every level: leading tourism, strengthening education, fueling the economy, and ensuring our health, wellness and imaginations. With this in mind, Dance/NYC has initiated a series of actions to highlight the importance of arts workers; build and amplify solidarity as a dance community and across the arts sector; and reimagine a world that is just, equitable, inclusive, and abundant.

WHY IS DANCE/NYC ADVOCATING FOR ARTS WORKERS NOW?
We Are Needed to Reimagine our World Post-Pandemic.
As we look to the future post-COVID-19, New York City artists must be at the forefront of relief efforts and in working towards recovery. Witnessing the devastating impact this moment is having on our dance and artistic community, generations of compounded inequities have become more evident since this crisis began. The dance community continuously remains adaptable, vibrant and resilient. Nonetheless, arts workers must be financially sustained as we look to the future of our city and recognize that artists as our cultural bearers will be crucial in ensuring that NYC thrives again. These visionaries will craft our way forward and must be included in conversations about how we safely return to our workplaces and sustain growth in the near future.

We Contribute to The City’s Economy.
The dance community in New York City attracts and exports talent around the world, drives local tourism, and is central to some of the City’s most popular and lucrative cultural attractions- including Broadway. Dance/NYC’s State of NYC Dance and Workforce Demographics Report has revealed that the dance sector contributes over $300 million to the City’s economy, even as dance remains the discipline receiving the lowest amount of funding in arts and culture. Post 9/11, the cultural sector was crucial in stimulating the economy, particularly around driving tourism. We are the connective tissue across industries, from journalism, to wall street, from education to health and mental services. Our expertise positions us as significant contributors to the preeminence of our cultural capital. 

We Bring Vitality to Our City’s Children, Families, and Generations. 
Artists play crucial roles in providing social services to our most vulnerable, embodying entrepreneurialism and leading innovative thinking. As you may know, Mayor de Blasio announced significant cuts to the city’s budget, particularly impacting arts and culture, and the department of education — both vital services that ensure the well-being of children, families, and older New Yorkers. This triage has worsening ripple effects for arts workers themselves and the communities they serve. During this time of pandemic, artists, organizations, and arts educators have provided necessary virtual programming that has allowed us to process our collective grief, stay motivated and engaged, and imagine our City post-pandemic. This work is necessary and must be recognized as such. 

We Model the Diversity of New York City.
Our work and organizations in dance celebrate, employ, and serve a diverse group of New Yorkers: We are people of color, disabled people, transgender and gender-nonconforming people, women-identifying and immigrant people, and people living in poverty. We are the birthplace of hip hop, salsa, and modern dance. We are places of preservation of folkloric and culturally specific dance forms. We are performance venues, presenters, educational institutions and festivals. We are New Yorkers dancing barefoot, on point, taps, sneakers, and Broadway. We are community organizers and administrators, educators and therapists, large organizations, and small community collectives. Together we represent over 5,000 individual dance artists, 1,200+ dance-making entities, and 500+ nonprofit dance companies.

Dance/NYC’s mission is to promote the knowledge, appreciation, practice, and performance of dance in the metropolitan New York City area. It embeds values of justice, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the organization. It works in alliance with Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance. Dance/NYC serves a wide variety of constituents: 5,000+ individual dance artists, 1,200+ dance-making entities, 500+ nonprofit dance companies, general public and visitors to New York, students, educators, and researchers, public and private funders, and government and civic leaders. For more information, visit www.dance.nyc.