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

ART/WORK: How the Government-Funded CETA Jobs Program Put Artists to Work

December 10, 2021 - March 19, 2022 / Manhattan , New York

https://www.artistsallianceinc.org/art-work-how-the-government-funded-ceta-jobs-program-put-artists-to-work/

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

Cuchifritos Gallery
88 Essex Street
inside Essex Market
Manhattan , New York