The exhibition, ART/WORK: How the Government-Funded CETA Jobs Program Put Artists to Work, is presented by City Lore and Artists Alliance Inc., as part of a long-term initiative, undertaken in conjunction with the Delaware Art Museum, exploring the impact of CETA on arts workforce development across the United States, and its relevance to recent efforts to include the arts community in the nation’s pandemic recovery. CETA’s legacy serves as a precedent for envisioning how we can create sustained investment in artists today, and for considering models for permanently infusing the creativity and resourcefulness of artists into our workforce.

Opening Friday, December 10 at AAI’s Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space and City Lore Gallery, both on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, ART/WORK spotlights the achievements of CETA-funded artists projects in New York City, which sent over 600 visual artists, poets, dancers, performers, and photographers, among many other specialists, into New York area schools, libraries, museums, nursing homes, prisons, and more. In the process, CETA nurtured a diverse artist workforce, provided art services and engagement to communities, and launched the careers of now-prominent artists and arts administrators, as well as beneficiaries who brought their experience to arts-adjacent fields or transferred it to other sectors. It also helped to nourish the community arts movement in New York and throughout the U.S.

Photo by Sarah Wells (1979) for the CETA CCF Artists Project. © Estate of Sarah Wells 2021

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