The Heartbeat of New York City: Pulse Checking The Culture Economy
New York City's arts and culture sector is struggling due to COVID-19 closures, and leaders of the community are advocating for sustained government support.
Without it, "I think we are facing a mass extinction, to be dramatic about it, and especially with organizations that are smaller. Organizations of under $250,000 a year budget, many of them, do not expect that they will be able to survive and get through," said Lucy Sexton, the executive director of New Yorkers for Culture and Arts and one of the leaders of Culture@3, a daily zoom call in which hundreds of the city's cultural leaders share resources and support.
Sexton joined Sade Lythcott, CEO of the National Black Theatre, chair of the Coalition of Theaters of Color, and a second leader of Culture@3 in a conversation with WNYC's Jami Floyd.
Lythcott noted that a lot of those small institutions that were hit hardest are located in communities of color, like her own Harlem. " I would shudder to think what would happen to Harlem, to communities like Harlem, where our anchoring institutions are cultural institutions," she said.
