In this New York Daily News op-ed, CUF Senior Researcher Adam Forman discusses the opportunities for opening up underutilized spaces in public schools and churches to local artists. At a time when affordable rehearsal and studio spaces are growing scarcer each year, Forman explains the benefits of utilizing arts facilities in public-school buildings that sit vacant much of the time, frustratingly out of reach for most artists.

Though an effort to make these spaces more accessible to artists would face challenges, Forman highlights the de Blasio administration’s Community Schools Initiative and the CUNY Dance Initiative as useful models of effective collaboration between artists, the city, and educational institutions. He also suggests that artist collaborations could also extend to religious institutions, and sheds insight into the ways in which the city can help cultivate appropriate and productive partnerships.

Click here to read the op-ed.