About | The People's Creative Institute

Based in New York City, The People’s Creative Institute serves as a gymnasium for the imagination—an incubator where underserved and immigrant communities grow ever more resilient through interdependence, collective visioning, shared artistic practice, and leadership training. Developed with the people themselves, The Institute nurtures a program of fellowships to enable the creation of public-facing artwork, and thereby realize beautiful urban spaces through shared cultural knowledge and expertise. We foster new knowledge, develop capacity and forge strategic alliances across the arts and other sectors. We work to develop arts leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation; expand career pathways; and demonstrate the economic and social value of the arts. Critically, because we are focused on supporting the immigrant communities in New York, we are also intent on developing a pathway to citizenship through our programs.

“We created a bus where we can go out and meet communities where they are. So it’s about first government coming out to meet you… The Bus is just an affirmation of the human soul and how it’s capable of going from a place of depth and darkness, to place of light and healing.”

-DR. SARAH SAYEED | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE NYC CIVIC ENGAGEMENT COMMISSION

“We need spaces that function as gyms for the people’s imagination — environments where creativity is cultivated to inspire greater justice and wondrous beauty.”

–YAZMANY ARBOLEDA, NYC’S PEOPLE’S ARTIST CIVIC ENGAGEMENET COMMISSION