Congressional Briefing: Supporting America’s Creative Workers

America’s creative workers face unprecedented challenges, requiring new thinking and bold ideas to support their contributions to our innovative society. The COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions hit creative workers hard and exposed the precarious nature of their work. Art Is Work: Policies to Support Creative Workers, a report of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences’ Commission on the Arts, lays out a new case for the value of the arts and artists to society and offers a series of recommendations to support the role of creative workers in American society. The report calls on governments at the national, state, and local level, as well as leaders in philanthropy and the arts itself, to recognize the essential nature of artists’ work in creating a vibrant and innovative democracy.

The American Academy invited all to join a briefing on the report and discussion with Arts Commission cochairs John Lithgow and Deborah Rutter, members of Congress, and other experts on the critical role of America’s creative workers and policies to support their vital contributions to our society.