To the Editor;

I felt strongly impelled to write this letter after reading the “Inside CNY’s Job Disaster” article on the financial impact of the COVID-19 disaster in Central NY. I was extremely troubled to see the arts and entertainment sector completely left out of this article. Reporter Michelle Breidenbach, who wrote the article, kindly wrote back to my message of concern immediately. I learned from her that the data sets she used were from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which does not separate arts and entertainment into its own category for metro levels. I appreciate the time she took to respond to me, it is illuminating that the data made available from the state labor department and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does such a disservice to the arts, and points to a need for more diverse viewpoints actively working in data science.

The arts and entertainment have been huge for the economy in Central NY and have been at the forefront of the downtown revitalization we have seen in large and small cities and towns throughout the region. The arts sector generates about $150 million in economic activity for our region, and of course arts/entertainment attendees spend at restaurants, hotels, and more.

Arts organizations and venues were the first to be shut down in March, with many arts nonprofits leading the way in responsible closures days before it was mandated by the government. In one of the sections of the “Inside CNY’s Job Disaster” article focusing on retail, Ted Potrikus of the Retail Council of NY State is quoted as saying “A lot of the holiday shopping excitement comes from being part of a crowd. It’s like going to a concert. You go because you want to be part of the action and you want to be around people. Now you don’t. Not this year.”

I was dismayed to see that that was the only mention of concerts in the whole article, and it was just used as an analogy to describe holiday shopping. While I of course feel for everyone impacted in retail and understand that it too is an important sector of the economy (like the arts), I wish that the arts and entertainment were a part of the conversation as well.

All (mainly low-wage and part-time) events staff lost their jobs unceremoniously in March, as did all performers. Many administrators have lost their jobs too or taken massive pay cuts, despite best efforts to continue their organization’s mission and services online with reduced staff.

If you’d like to learn more about the losses in this sector, check out the COVID-19 Arts Impact Survey for Central NY.

Also, on Sept. 1 arts organizations nationwide participated in #RedAlertRESTART to draw attention to the financial cratering of our sector.

These organizations / venues will not be able to safely get back to business in any meaningful way until sometime in 2021, and even then they likely won’t get back to their previous frequency/vibrancy of programming until 2022. Meanwhile, millions of Americans and thousands of Central New Yorkers are out of work in their chosen field. And the federal government doesn’t appear to be interested in helping them at all.

This is the definition of a “job disaster” to me, which is why I was so troubled to not see the arts mentioned at all in this article.

Paula Kinev,

Arts consultant, freelance hornist | Former Director of Development/Marketing at Auburn Public Theater

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