ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Over the years, the New York City Arts Coalition has grown from fourteen organizations in 1986 to over 250 today. Our ongoing, sustained work in the field of policy development and arts advocacy has earned us a sterling reputation in City Hall and at the State Capitol for our in-depth knowledge of the priorities and needs of the cultural sector.

Over the past few years, with our members, we have:
	Restored cuts the Giuliani administration proposed to the arts budget eight years in a row.
	Secured a $7 million increase to the City’s arts budget in 2000.
	Achieved restoration of proposed cuts to the arts in each of the first three years of the Bloomberg administration.
	Established Artist for a Day, a citywide event at which members of the civic, business, and press spend a day at an arts organization.
	Initiated the first amicus brief in support of the First Amendment Rights of the Brooklyn Museum during the 1999 crisis when Mayor Giuliani threatened to evict the Museum and withdraw its funding over a work of art he found offensive.
	Published a four-page insert on the arts in 1999 in the Legislative Gazette, an Albany newspaper. Designed as an educational piece for the Legislature, this was the first time the arts were featured in this way. The piece included in-depth articles on the benefits of funding theatre, dance, and other arts programs in New York City.
	Achieved annual increases to State Council on the Arts’ budget from 1997 to 2001, which has grown by $22.3 million to an annual appropriation of over $50 million. These annual increases have resulted in a cumulative total of $60.3 million in new funds to the arts over five years.
	Published Creative Downtown: The Role of Culture in Rebuilding Lower Manhattan, which provided an historical overview of the role of artists and arts groups in Lower Manhattan as well as very concrete proposals.
	Joined with other civic groups in an ongoing effort to ensure that the rebuilding in Lower Manhattan includes affordable housing, jobs for New Yorkers, and adequate attention to mental health and environmental concerns.
	Surveyed both Lower Manhattan arts groups and the rest of the City to obtain accurate data of the economic impact of Sept. 11, and provided that data to funders and elected officials within a few weeks of the event.
	Published and distributed, in December 2001, two compilations of resources for those needing assistance due to Sept. 11: A Non-Profits Guide to Sept. 11 Relief Efforts and An Artist's Guide to Sept. 11 Relief Efforts. Both were in user-friendly format with places for notes. 10,000 were distributed.
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