Voices for Creative New York (VCNY) is New York State’s statewide arts and culture advocacy organization. VCNY brings together artists, cultural workers, arts organizations, and advocacy groups across disciplines and geographies to strengthen the creative workforce and advance policies that support a thriving, equitable arts and culture ecosystem throughout the state.

Launched officially on June 30, 2025, VCNY was incubated at Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY) following an 18-month participatory process that engaged artists, arts service organizations, and advocacy leaders from across New York State. This process helped shape VCNY’s mission, values, governance model, and policy priorities, ensuring that the coalition reflects the realities and needs of the field it represents.

VCNY is co-led by five nonprofit organizations with deep experience in arts advocacy, organizing, labor, and cultural policy. The co-leadership partners are:

The initiative has dedicated funding to support partner participation, individual artist engagement, statewide research and data collection, coordinated communications, and a shared co-governance committee. As part of its governance, it has consolidated an Action Council, formed by:

    What VCNY Does

    VCNY serves as New York’s statewide arts advocacy infrastructure. Its work includes:

    • Connecting New York’s arts and culture community to broader statewide and national advocacy efforts
    • Bringing artists and cultural organizations together around shared priorities and policy goals
    • Supporting collective engagement with public decision-making processes that affect arts, culture, and creative workers
    • Creating spaces for learning, exchange, and collaboration through gatherings, resources, and public initiatives
    • Building understanding of the role, realities, and needs of the creative workforce
    • Generating and sharing research and information to strengthen advocacy, policy development, and public accountability

    Values and Approach

    VCNY is grounded in a collaborative and representative model of advocacy. The coalition:

    • Centers artists, culture bearers, and creative workers in leadership and decision-making
    • Prioritizes inclusive representation across identities, cultural practices, disciplines, and regions
    • Advances cross-sector policy solutions that connect arts and culture to labor, education, economic justice, social services, and civic life

    Looking Ahead

    In its first years, VCNY is focused on building durable governance structures, developing a shared policy platform, organizing working groups on key issue areas (such as the creative economy, arts education, safety nets, and research), expanding membership statewide, and securing long-term funding to sustain the coalition’s work.

    Together, VCNY works to ensure that arts and culture are recognized as essential public goods—and that the people who make New York creative can live, work, and thrive across the state.

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