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SPECIAL FEATURE
The arts in CNY struggle to survive the pandemic COVID ARTS RELIEF FUND CREATED TO HELP BRIDGE FUNDING GAP David Tyler
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mpty theaters, canceled arts and crafts shows, and concerns about visiting museums and galleries have put Central New York’s arts community in financial peril. Elizabeth Lane is the program director for CNY Arts, a local non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, supporting and celebrating arts in the seven-county Central New York region. Based on a recent survey of its members, Lane estimated that arts organizations and individual artists in the region have suffered revenue losses of upwards of $50 million since the pandemic began. And with the spread of the coronavirus ramping up again this fall, it doesn’t appear that a quick end to the downturn is in sight. The survey CNY Arts recently commissioned showed that only 6 percent of arts organizations and 11 percent of individual artists have been left financially whole through the pandemic. More than 75 percent rate the pandemic’s financial impact from “severe” to “extremely severe.”
November 2020
Lane said that most of the arts organizations in Central New York have been able to sustain themselves through the downturn using a mix of grants and CARES Act funding, but as federal assistance has dried up, those revenue sources are dwindling. “The data from the survey shows that organizations would start to run out of cash on hand toward the end of October if there was no relief,” Lane said, and CNY Arts is beginning to hear from some of its member organizations that they may be forced to close permanently. “Particularly those seasonal organizations that completely canceled their summer programs, they’re really struggling to figure out what to do in 2021 and into the future,” Lane said. “There are quite a few organizations that are struggling to get by.” Even for those museums, galleries and sites celebrating local history that have been able to open their doors the struggle to attract patrons persists.
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