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CETA Arts Legacy - Resources
CETA in Arts Policy Development
Creatives Rebuild NY was a three-year, $125 million project in N.Y. State, funded primarily by the Mellon Foundation.
It had two distinct components: employment and basic income. 300 artists were employed over two years in full-time
community service positions that paid $65,000 per year while 2400 artists received grants of $1000 per month for 18 months.
The employment component of CRNY was based closely on the 1978 CCF CETA Artists Program (which it credits).
A significant difference is that community sponsors received funding as well.
NYC mayor Bill de Blasio's announcement of the City's Artists Corps project (5/6/21) cited CETA as an inspiration for the Corps.
Earlier, in the 2018 Create NYC plan developed by the Department of Cultural Affairs, the CETA Artist Project is included as a case study.
Artists speak about their CETA experiences:
Videos by two acclaimed artists who credit CETA Arts
as an imposrtant experience in their lives and a valuable social program:
Peter Coyote • Bill Irwin
A reflection by CETA artist Dawoud Bey on the experience, from his Blog.
Historic Reference
Looking for CETA: Tracking the impact of the 1970s federal program that employed artists
an article by Linda Frye Burnham and Steven Durland on the site Forecast Public Art (May 23, 2017)
Frye Burnham and Durland also wrote a two-part book The CETA Arts and Humanties Experience (2011)
It interprets the studies done by by Morgan Management Systems for the U.S. Department of Labor in 1979-81.
It is available from Kindle.
Art Works is a 30-minute documentary video made in 1975 by Optic Nerve about the implementation of CETA Arts in San Francisco.
Among those featured is John Kreidler, generally regarded as the mastermind behind using CETA funds to employ artists.
The Federal Artist is a 45-minute documentary video on the CETA CCF Artists Project
produced in 1979 by a team of media artists from the CETA-funded
Foundation for Independent Video & Film, led by its director Marc Levin.
A Place in the Workforce is a 30-minute film produced in 1980 for the U.S. Department of Labor
to demonstrate the long-term effectiveness of CETA employment for artists.
CETA Arts in Arizona a short film produced in connection with CETA arts projects in Phoenix AZ
The Clark Street Subway Station ceramic murals (some of the last extant CCF public art works)
are documented on the site Tiles in New York.
An article in the N.Y. Times (December 30, 1977) announced the creation of a CETA-funded NYC Artist Project.
55 file boxes of records and 16 boxes of A/V materials of the CCF CETA Arts Project are held by the NYC Department of Records
There is also an additional box of CETA photographs by Terise Slotkin documenting the Brooklyn Arts and Culture Association.
The Municipal Archives are headquartered at 31 Chambers Street in Manhattan, with a reaearch facility at Industry City in Brooklyn.
Arrangements must be made in advance to have the CETA Arts records made available for viewing.
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