Saturday, November 8, 2025
Long Island is known for its beaches, its vineyards and its suburban sprawl. But a new report reminds us of something too often overlooked: The arts are one of the region’s most powerful economic engines.
According to the Center for an Urban Future, jobs in arts and culture on Long Island grew by a stunning 21.6 percent between 2014 and 2024. That’s five times faster than the region’s overall economy. The number of independent artists nearly doubled during the same period, fueling downtown revitalization, driving tourism and supporting small businesses. From muralists in Patchogue to theater productions in Huntington, creativity is reshaping the Island’s identity, and its bottom line.
And yet, just as this growth is transforming local communities, warning signs are flashing. The same report shows that the average arts worker on Long Island earns just $46,500 annually — barely half the regional average income. The number of performing-arts jobs remains more than 13 percent below pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, the costs of housing and living have skyrocketed, with housing prices alone climbing more than 60 percent in the past decade.
The math doesn’t add up. We are asking artists to do the impossible: generate enormous economic and cultural value for the region while surviving on wages that barely cover rent.
The problem isn’t talent or ambition. It’s support — or rather, the lack of it. Despite being home to 14.7 percent of New York state’s population, Long Island receives just 2.8 percent of grants awarded by the state’s Council on the Arts. Less than 1 percent of federal National Endowment for the Arts funding in New York finds its way here.
And while state economic development councils are investing more than ever in arts projects statewide, only 3.1 percent of Long Island’s recent allocation went to the creative sector.
This chronic underinvestment has created what researchers call a “negative feedback loop.” Because the region has historically been overlooked, its institutions lack the resources to compete effectively for competitive funding, which in turn reinforces low funding rates. It’s a cycle that limits growth and puts Long Island’s creative vitality at risk.
The solutions are clear, and the payoff could be enormous. The Center for an Urban Future’s recommendations should be a wake-up call to policymakers.
Among them: dedicating 1 percent of county budgets to arts programming and operations, expanding the state arts budget, and creating a Long Island Grant Academy to strengthen the capacity of local organizations to win state and federal support.
The report also suggests converting underused commercial properties into cultural spaces, integrating the arts into tourism planning, and even embedding artists directly into government initiatives, as upstate Erie County has done successfully.
These aren’t fringe ideas. They’re pragmatic strategies to sustain a sector that has already proven itself indispensable. Arts and culture are not luxuries to be funded only in good times. They are infrastructure — just as essential to the region’s economic vitality and community well-being as roads, schools and hospitals.
Consider the ripple effects: thriving downtowns anchored by galleries and theaters. Restaurants and shops boosted by performance-goers and festival crowds. Tourists are drawn to more than just beaches and wineries, while young families choose to stay because their communities feel vibrant and alive. At a time when many Long Island towns struggle with empty storefronts and affordability crises, creativity has been a rare and steady growth engine.
To jeopardize this progress through neglect would be shortsighted. As Jonathan Bowles, the center’s executive director, put it: “Unless county leaders and the state step up, Long Island risks losing the very creativity that is powering its success.”
Leaders in Nassau and Suffolk counties must recognize that a modest investment today could safeguard the region’s cultural and economic future. Allocating just 1 percent of county budgets to the arts —around $80 million annually — would not only stabilize existing organizations but also unlock additional state and federal dollars. That kind of leverage is how Long Island can finally get its fair share.
The arts have already proven what they can do for Long Island. The question now is whether Long Island will do right by the arts. If we want downtowns that hum with life, economies that diversify and communities that feel worth staying in, then investing in creativity is not optional. It’s essential.
