Happy Thursday in NYC, the city of open mics and opening nights, of black box theaters and pop-up galleries, where artists are finding it increasingly difficult to support themselves. 

The paradigm of the struggling artist has long been baked into the DNA of this city, but in recent years, the struggle has reached a breaking point, precipitating a mass exodus of artists and creatives to more money-green pastures. Neighborhoods that were once hotspots of artistic activity — including the Upper West Side, Hell’s Kitchen and Bushwick — are pricing out the people who helped establish them as cultural destinations in the first place. 

“New York City can not survive as a global center for arts and culture if artists can not afford to live here,” the Center for an Urban Future warned in a January report. 

A new bill working its way through the State Assembly seeks to address this trend. If passed, the bill would make it easier to supply affordable housing to people engaged in creative professions, including visual artists, musicians and performers — in effect, expanding federally-subsidized housing for artists like the Manhattan Plaza complex, which produced notable creatives like Timothée Chalamet, Larry David, Alicia Keys and Samuel L. Jackson, among others.

“We should be lifting all boats,” Assemblymember Keith Powers, the bill’s sponsor, told Gothamist. “ This bill is one of many of the tools in our toolbox to help build a more affordable New York City.”

However, some lawmakers contend that the proposed bill violates the city’s Human Rights Law, which prohibits housing bias based on profession. Others argue housing resources need to start and end with the people most in need of them — the homeless. 

“As a guiding principle, when you have a limited resource, you’d start with the people who are most in need,” David Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, told THE CITY back in January, “whether they’re artists or work in the food service industry or as home health aides. Whatever their occupation.”

But the artist affordability crisis goes beyond the artists themselves. It represents a threat to the city’s bars, restaurants, nightlife venues and event spaces — the very fabric of the city that never sleeps. Who’s going to paint the town red if they can’t afford brushes?

When Dianne Berkun Menaker founded the Brooklyn Youth Chorus as a nonprofit in 1992, it began during after school hours at the private school where she taught music. Her budget was tiny and she was new in her own singing career.

Three decades later, thousands of students ages 5 through 18 have passed through BYC under Berkun Menaker’s mentorship. The chorus has received remarkable critical acclaim, a Grammy, a New York Times profile and collaborations with the New York Philharmonic, David Byrne and Barbra Streisand, to name a few. 

Despite its remarkable reach and professional success, the BYC, like so many other arts institutions, is in an unprecedented state of financial precarity. Learn more.

The PREMIUM tag indicates articles that come with extra photographs or special coverage. Thinking of a subscription? Try us out with a day pass for just 99 cents. No long-term commitment for a subscription.

Got a tip? Send it in to [email protected].