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CETA Arts Legacy - Resources for Cultural Sector Recovery


CETA Arts in Policy Development and the Media

Creatives Rebuild NY is a three-year, $125 million project funded primarily by the Mellon Foundation with both employment and basic income programs for artists in NY State. 
The employment component of CRNY is based closely on the 1978 CCF CETA Artists Program (which it credits).

NYC mayor Bill de Blasio's announcement of the City's Artists Corps project (5/6/21) cites 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.

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.

NYC Municipal Archives

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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