Background
Voices for Creative New York (VCNY) is a statewide arts and culture advocacy coalition working to strengthen New York’s creative workforce and advance policies that support a thriving, equitable cultural ecosystem across the state. VCNY brings together artists, cultural workers, arts organizations, and advocacy groups across disciplines, regions, and communities to build shared advocacy infrastructure and coordinate collective action around the future of arts and culture in New York.
Officially launched on June 30, 2025, VCNY emerged from an 18-month participatory process incubated by Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY). The process engaged artists, arts service organizations, and advocacy leaders from across the state to help shape the coalition’s mission, values, governance model, and policy priorities, grounding the organization in the lived realities and needs of the field it represents.
VCNY supports partner participation, individual artist engagement, statewide research and data initiatives, coordinated communications, and shared governance structures designed to foster collaboration and long-term sector leadership.
In its early years, VCNY is focused on building durable governance and organizing infrastructure, developing a shared policy agenda, convening working groups on key issues—including the creative economy, arts education, social protections, and research—and expanding participation across New York State.
VCNY works to ensure that arts and culture are recognized as essential civic and social infrastructure, and that the people who sustain New York’s creative life can live, work, and thrive throughout the state.
Objectives
VCNY serves as New York’s statewide arts advocacy infrastructure. Its objectives include:
- 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
Leadership Partners
VCNY is co-led by five nonprofit organizations with deep experience in arts advocacy, organizing, labor, and cultural policy. The co-leadership partners are:
Action Council
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:
Organizations