Nonprofit Sees Public/Private Sector Involvement as Crucial to Solving Issues.

July 7, 2008

(New York, N.Y.) — On June 24th, NYC Performing Arts Spaces was invited to testify at a City Council hearing, "Providing Adequate Workspace for Artists and Musicians in New York City." It was held by New York City Council's Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries & International Intergroup Relations, the Hon. Domenic Recchia, Jr., Chair. The hearing encouraged the discussion of public and private sector solutions for the growing need for affordable, accessible rehearsal and performance spaces for the arts in New York City.

In their testimony, Eugenie Cowan, Director, and David Johnston, Program Director, of NYC Performing Arts Spaces said that at stake is the health of the performing arts industries in New York City. Given the current real estate climate, arts and cultural industries will not survive if left to free market forces.

They proposed solutions to the lack of affordable, available musicians' workspace outlined in the organization’s recent report, "Where Can We Work?". These included a music rehearsal space subsidy program modeled after the current NYSCA program for dance, mutually beneficial musicians’ residency programs in public institutions such as the Queens Public Library, and tax incentive programs for music clubs paying fees to musicians.

Kate Levin, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, underscored several of the points made in "Where Can We Work?" in her own testimony to the Committee. Among them were artists’ needs for multiple specialized workspaces that are both affordable and accessible in order to carry out their work.

Cowan also discussed the results of a survey of New York City arts facilities taken by NYC Performing Arts Spaces this spring. It showed that most performance venues had kept their rates constant over the last year despite increasing costs. However, over one third of theatre spaces surveyed characterized their real estate future as "endangered" or "probably endangered."

NYC Performing Arts Spaces (formerly Exploring the Metropolis, Inc.) is the only nonprofit organization that focuses solely on resolving performing artists' needs for rehearsal and performance space. Its mission is to foster a vibrant and prolific performing arts community around shared resources of space and talent, to increase stability and growth within the artistic community, and to help broaden public access to the performing arts. The organization takes a multi-faceted approach, providing valuable free services through its program websites — nycMusicSpaces.org, nycDanceSpaces.org, nycTheatreSpaces.org — to both the performing artists who need appropriate work spaces and the facilities who offer them.

"Where Can We Work?" was generously supported by The New York State Music Fund, the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, and Amphion Foundation. The NYC Music Spaces program is funded in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts; the Amphion, AOH, Christian A. Johnson Endeavor, Avery and Janet Fisher, DJ McManus, and George L. Shields Foundations, and individuals.