Opinion: We need the arts now more than ever

In an era with emergencies at every turn, from the collapse of the social safety net to a lack of basic safety for so many communities, deciding what causes to support can feel daunting. It may be tempting to focus on what are easily perceived as the most acute needs, and several of us have had grants cut and redirected to other causes. Our community of small arts organizations wants you to know how urgent investments in and advocacy for the arts are today.

In 2024, the DJ McManus Foundation and Harman Family Foundation funded a professional learning community of small to midsize arts organizations in New York City. We meet regularly to learn, network, and share insights about sustainability and impact. To support this work, the foundations engaged Change Impact to facilitate our collective work. Our community includes: Art Start, Brooklyn Children's Theatre, Drama Club, Epic Theatre Ensemble, Houses on the Moon Theater Company, Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center, MOVE|NYC, Musicambia, Perfect City, Scope Of Work, The Bell, The Noel Pointer Foundation, and UpBeat NYC. We invite you to watch these highlights from our recent event showcasing our organizations’ work.

The arts are a critical part of society, from education to health to social justice. Data gathered by Americans for the Arts demonstrate countless benefits: three-quarters of Americans believe the arts unify communities across lines of difference; arts and culture contribute nearly $100 billion to the economy; and students engaged in the arts have stronger academic performance – just to name a few. New research from the University of Pittsburgh found seven distinct benefits of culture-centered, community-based youth arts programs including cultivating positive emotional regulation, fostering deep connections, and affirming and celebrating the identities of people from historically marginalized communities.

Our organizations contribute to educational, social, and civic life in New York City in many ways, including:

• Connecting young adults to paid internships and jobs in the creative sector
• Supporting formerly incarcerated people to build skills, confidence, and a plan for a productive future
• Creating safe spaces for children and youth to spend their summers as they engage in music, theater, and dance experiences
• Helping people from historically marginalized communities to creatively tell their stories and explore their power to influence public policy 

Our programs are critical lifelines for children and adults. For many, they rely on our programs to access free meals over the summer. They count on the income earned through our placement programs to make ends meet. They can go to work knowing their children are in our care. Despite this, our services are often misunderstood to be a luxury. 

Our organizations were already working hard to sustain our work, and it has only become more challenging in 2025. Nationally and locally, arts nonprofits experienced in recent years as pandemic-era support waned, states returned to normalized budgeting practices and some donors and foundations shifted priorities. In the face of declining revenue in every category in 2024, arts nonprofits cut expenses in 2024 but many experienced budget deficits nonetheless. As one of our organizations described, some of us are on a funding roller coaster – losing federal grants, followed by a wave of temporary support, only to be faced with economic challenges (tariffs, job losses, loan repayments, etc.) that caused donors to back away again.

Small arts organizations need new and varied sources of support. We need committed, big and small donors to support and champion our work; most of all, we need flexible and long-term funding to afford to pay thriving wages to our caring staff. We need space and equipment to deliver high-quality arts experiences, and we need support from foundations and the corporate community to broker these resources. We need partnerships with food pantries, mental health providers, and others who can help meet the holistic needs of our communities. Please don’t turn your back on the arts in the current climate. Today, the nonprofit sector is under attack and needs champions, donors, and partners more than ever before, including arts organizations like ours.

Below are just a few examples of the challenges our organizations have faced, which we encourage you to view as opportunities to support us.

Drama Club is facing a leadership transition. The founder has left and co-interim EDs have been appointed by the board. Leadership transitions are expensive, from search firms to professional development to severance pay. We have a strong transition committee made up of board and staff, but we have not been able to secure specific funding for the transition.

On one hand, Perfect City is having an easier time making the case for our work, which strengthens local democracies through creative tools and practices. At the same time, the funds to support our growing organization are harder to come by. As always, and now more than before, infrastructure, general operations, and the funds to resource collaborations respectfully and abundantly is on the line. 

As many families in our community face mounting existential threats on the very streets where they live, the importance of UpBeat’s grassroots network and physical space have grown paramount. Because of the trust from our families, UpBeat programming continues to thrive. But, our hearts break as families relay to us the tragic options they are currently considering including preemptively self-deporting to avoid being disappeared at someone else’s hands, while placing their children with loved ones so they can continue their lives here in the U.S., thus breaking up their own family to survive. We are doing all we can to support them during this time, but it’s a challenge given our resource limitations.

Beyond immediate financial struggles, including losing funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, Epic Theater Ensemble is in a strategic planning process to re-structure our staff with the goal of 1-2 new hires by 2027. We feel this is needed to position the organization for long-term sustainability. It’s incredibly challenging to secure general operating support, including dollars for non-program staff.  If funders could provide flexible, long-term funds for these kinds of operational staff, it would be a game-changer. It’s worth noting we’re also encouraged by the New York State Council on the Arts Reserve Fund, which specifically provides funds that can be saved and used only as needed to stabilize arts organizations.

Houses on the Moon Theater Company produces plays and educational programs that center challenging themes: gun violence, human trafficking, immigration, mass incarceration, LGBTQ+ rights and more. In 2025, we've experienced cuts in both public and private funding due to the nature of our work or because foundations have shifting priorities. These gaps in support, coupled with rising production costs in New York City, have impacted the development of our next Off Broadway production, SKIN TO SKIN, about the Black maternal health crisis in the U.S. This has a ripple effect on the working artists we employ, who rely on Houses for income and on our ability to fully produce the play Off Broadway, tour it to community spaces following its premiere, and – most importantly – share this vital story as widely as it deserves.