Introducing Charter 26
The Hunter College Office of the Arts has hosted two events to listen to hundreds of artists and arts workers about the state of the arts in NYC. The issues raised echo numerous academic reports within the past decade: Artists are struggling. They need space to make and share their work. And the system needs a dramatic re-thinking.
To continue these conversations—and broaden their reach, to more institutional leaders and funders—we invite you to sign Charter 26: A Petition from New York Artists and Arts Workers, calling on artists, institutions, and funders to come together and act.
Assembly of New York Artists
On January 26, more than 200 people trudged through the aftermath of a blizzard to gather at Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery for We the People: An Assembly of New York Artists, hosted by the Hunter College Office of the Arts.
The attendees introduced themselves, and then took 60 seconds to propose, from their own experience, how the arts in New York might better flourish.
Forum on Working Class Artists in America
On May 1, 2025, this forum gathered artists, arts leaders, elected officials, students, professors, and more at Hunter College, to discuss issues related to working class artists and to propose solutions toward a more economically inclusive culture that reflects the full breadth of the American experience in the twenty-first century.
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“Art is the great democrat, calling forth genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color.”
John F. Kennedy, 1962
“Lincoln used to say that democracy was a system that allowed you to arrive at your level of talent and discipline. A lot of people don’t feel that anymore. This is where class comes in…you wonder how much talent is out there and the system doesn’t let them rise.”
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin
A healthy democracy’s culture would reflect the widest possible creative perspectives of its citizens. But for the past fifty years, working class American artists—Black and white, urban and rural, men and women—have found it increasingly difficult to propel their voices into the national conversation. There are many reasons for this, and it is of course only a part of the larger national economic and social problem facing the working class. But diminishing these creative voices has exacerbated our well-documented cultural disconnections, distorted our sense of a national identity, limited opportunities for community building through empathy, and held us back from that ever elusive goal, a more perfect union.
On May 1, 2025, We the People: A Forum on Working Class Artists in America brought together artists and arts administrators, policymakers, economists, scholars, elected officials, students, and journalists at Hunter College for a series of panel discussions to explore the financial and social barriers that artists from working class backgrounds face, the commonplace inaccessibility of arts events to working class audiences, the financial and social price of the arts not representing the culture at its fullest, and what solutions we might begin to find.
Next, on January 26, 2026, We the People: An Assembly of New York Artists gathered artists and arts workers at a public event where they shared their individual perspectives and ideas for creating a more equitable and vibrant arts landscape in New York City and State.