Workers of art

GlobAL PEACE FILM FESTIVAL, FINE ARTS FILM FESTIVAL, BUFFALO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

A vivid look at how investing in creative labor reshapes society. History reveals: when artists are resourced, communities thrive; when they’re not, everyone loses. It’s a rallying cry for a new public imagination and why the future depends on it.

Synopsis

Through the lens of Creatives Rebuild New York, an unprecedented initiative that provided guaranteed income and employment to 2,700 artists, the documentary follows communities transformed when creative workers are recognized as essential. In hospitals, classrooms, justice organizations, and neighborhood cultural spaces, artists become catalysts for healing, connection, and systemic change—bringing imagination where institutions have fallen short.

Interwoven with the largely untold history of public support for artists in America, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Comprehensive Training Act (CETA), the film uncovers a recurring truth: when artists are supported, communities thrive; when they’re not, everyone loses.

THE FILM
A visually stunning, mixed media documentary directed by four-time Emmy and Peabody Award winner Marc Levin, a former CETA artist, that blends archival footage, vérité filmmaking, and participant's original artwork, music, performance, with purpose.

WHY NOW

With cuts to arts and cultural institutions it is imperative to rally behind the conversation about how artists are truly essential workers. As participating artists navigate the opportunities, challenges, and responsibility of being properly resourced, “Workers of Art” becomes more than a documentary—it becomes an invitation to rethink who we value, what we fund, and what kind of future we want to build.

“Art in America has always belonged to the people.” – Franklin Roosevelt