Grants for LI performing arts drop as arts employment rises

Daily Point

Creative cuts and surprise additions

More Long Islanders are working in the performing arts sector today than six years ago, just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The renewed employment comes despite diminishing government funding for the arts.

Private and nonprofit establishments dominate the arts sector on Long Island. Around 901 Long Islanders across the region in theater, dance and other arts worked at 120 such establishments in the third quarter of 2025, according to recently released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of those, 64 such establishments were based in Nassau County and 56 in Suffolk, with at least 407 and 494 artists employed in each county. There were also around 542 Long Islanders who identified as independent writers, performers or artists who were not directly employed by any establishment.

While the number of establishments or groups has largely remained the same since early 2020, this marks an increase from the 708 employed and 379 independent artists pre-pandemic. Nassau had 232 people who were employed as artists back then, and Suffolk around 476 in the first quarter of 2020.

A full year's data was not yet available for 2025. However, data for 2024 shows that the industry brought in at least $38 million in annual wages, and another report by the Long Island Arts Alliance suggested that the region's nonprofit arts sector generated $330 million in economic activity in 2022.

Long Island's performing arts sector brings in spectators from across the country but relies heavily on grants from donors and the government. Between 2003 and 2025, various nonprofit establishments received a total of $39.1 million in the form of grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the primary funding pot from the state. Of that, $9.13 million was received by establishments in Nassau and $30 million by those based in Suffolk, according to The Point's analysis of the data. Three organizations — the Huntington Arts Council, Port Washington-based Long Island Traditions and East End Arts and Humanities — have received a total of 222 grants from the state since 2003.

Long Island’s share has been 2.9% of the entire pot of $1.34 billion grants distributed statewide. The highest received was 3.7% in 2003 and the lowest was 2.3% in 2018.

"Many of the organizations we work with are operating on a month-to-month basis with almost no reserves, struggling to cover basic operating costs like rent and utilities even as their public impact grows," said Kieran Johnson, executive director of the Huntington Arts Council, in a statement. "This is all compounded by a lack of public investment. Long Island represents nearly 15 percent of the state's population but receives less than 3 percent of state cultural funds."

Meanwhile, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) — both agencies that support numerous nonprofits around Long Island — have faced sweeping cuts from the Trump administration. Nonprofits such as Ma's House & BIPOC Art Studio in the Shinnecock Indian Nation did not receive a $10,000 grant from the IMLS that was intended to fund an exhibit last year. Similarly, The Whaling Museum & Education Center in Cold Spring Harbor was told its funding would be slashed.

— Karthika Namboothiri karthika.namboothiri@newsday.com

Pencil Point

We don't have the funds

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Final Point

Public funds are an offer Solages and Mattera can refuse

Seeking public campaign funds is a popular move among state legislative candidates of both major parties now that the program is in full swing. But there are still a few who pass on the offer, as indicated by postings of the state's Public Campaign Finance Board.

Of the total 22 Assembly seats covering Nassau and Suffolk counties, only one incumbent seeking reelection seems to have not applied for matching funds offered by the system: Michaelle Solages (D-Elmont), the chamber's deputy majority leader.

"I haven't found the need to do it. I fundraise, don't want to use matching funds," Solages told The Point on Thursday. Given competing needs such as schools and local governments, she said, "I want to be smart about how state money is used. I'm not going to access funds just because it's there." She won her last reelection with 62%. This year she faces a new contender, Robert Inzerillo, on the Republican and Conservative lines, and he has applied for public financing.

Solages notes she could apply if she deems it necessary in the future, and doesn't knock other candidates who do.

In the State Senate, the one incumbent from Long Island who is passing on the program appears to be Mario Mattera (R-St. James) who cruised to reelection to a third term in 2024.

Mattera, a plumbers union official, has argued that taxpayer money should not be used to finance political campaigns, saying state funds are better focused on infrastructure and community needs. That has generally been the Republican stance for years, but at this point, refusing the funds on political principle could be seen as unilateral disarmament in a difficult race.

That may be the rationale behind GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman's protest of a partisan fix when the campaign finance board denied him eligibility for the money based on alleged errors in applying.

Now Blakeman is suing in state court in Albany. His legal filings say: "Choking off campaign funding at this critical juncture would be extremely damaging to and debilitating for a campaign, the harm would be irreparable."

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

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