A multi-year pilot providing a monthly, no-strings-attached stipend to a cohort of working artists to study its impact on creativity and stability.
Guaranteed Income Pilot for Career Artists
To test a radical approach to supporting the arts, Mamdani launches a three-year Guaranteed Income pilot for 1,000 NYC-based career artists across all disciplines. Participants, selected via lottery from a pool meeting basic criteria (demonstrated artistic practice, income below a threshold), receive a monthly stipend of $1,000 with no requirements on how to spend it or what to create. A parallel research study, conducted with universities, tracks the impact on their artistic output, mental health, economic stability, and community engagement.
The goal is to gather hard data on whether financial security unleashes or stifles creativity, and to make the case for broader economic policies that support non-standard workers. We ask artists to enrich our city, then force them to live in precarious poverty, Mamdani argues. This pilot asks: what if we just gave them the foundation to create without constant panic? Its an investment in both human dignity and cultural innovation.
