Case Study of Benefits, W2 Employment, and a Worker Cooperative: Findings from Creatives Rebuild New York’s Artist Employment Program

For two years, Creatives Rebuild New York supported employment and benefits for 300 artists in collaboration with over 100 community-based organizations across NY State. In this webinar, we will focus on this program and specifically the program’s two employment models: in some collaborations artists were directly employed by their partnering organization; in others, they were employed by Tribeworks, a cooperative portable benefits platform that provided employment and access to fringe benefits. We will use Urban Institute’s recent report that examines these two models to reflect on the program’s impact and ramifications for future programs, philanthropic investment, and policy.

Join Joseph Cureton (Tribeworks), Nydia Padilla-Rodriguez (Borinquen Dance Theatre, Inc.), Mark Treskon (Urban Institute), and Christina Hunt Wood (Tribeworks) in this conversation moderated by Sarah Calderón (Creatives Rebuild New York) on Tuesday, December 3 at 2pm EST/11am PST.

This 90-minute webinar will include a live Q & A.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Live captioning will be available in English throughout the webinar. For additional accommodation requests, please contact GIA Program Manager Jaime Sharp, jaime@giarts.org, at least three (3) business days before the event.

Sarah Calderon, Executive Director, Creatives Rebuild New York

Sarah Calderón is the Executive Director of Creatives Rebuild New York. Previously, Sarah was the Managing Director of ArtPlace America from 2015 to 2020. In this role, Sarah led strategy, finance and operations, management, and grantmaking strategies for higher education. Previously, she was the Executive Director of Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education (Bronx, NY) from 2008 to 2015. During her tenure at Casita, she oversaw the opening of a new, 90,000-square-foot facility for the Center’s arts and education programming and developed partnerships with organizations ranging from Lincoln Center to the NYC Housing Authority. Before joining Casita, she founded and ran Stickball Printmedia Arts in East Harlem, a printmaking and digital arts organization for youth. Prior to that, Sarah was with the NYC Department of Education creating the Annual Arts in Schools Report—a data collection, analysis, and reporting effort for arts education in NYC’s public schools. She also consulted at MPR Associates, managing education research and evaluation projects from design through publication. She has worked as a teaching artist in Chicago, Oakland, and New York City.

Joseph Cureton, Director, Tribeworks

Joseph Cureton is the Chief Coordinating Officer and co-founder of Obran Cooperative, the first worker-owned conglomerate corporation. His work focuses on corporate strategy, capital formation, and transactional support for the Cooperative's mergers and acquisitions practice. He is a serial entrepreneur (founding two of the Cooperative's portfolio companies Core Staffing and Tribeworks). His work builds pathways to the solidarity economy, centerning the challenges faced by modern workers. Joseph is a new father, a software engineer (Drexel University), and classically trained chef (Johnson and Wales) by trade.

Nydia Padilla-Rodriguez, Founder & Artistic Director, Borinquen Dance Theatre, Inc.

Nydia Padilla-Rodriguez is the founder and Artistic Director of Borinquen Dance Theatre (BDT), an organization established in 1981 to empower youth through dance and self-development. She is also a retiree of the Rochester City School District Administrator. A native of Rochester, New York, Nydia grew up inspired by Puerto Rican cultural traditions and passionate about using the arts to impact young people’s lives. Her dedication to education and the arts led her to earn degrees from SUNY Brockport, providing her with the foundation to develop BDT into a well-respected institution within the Rochester community. Under Nydia’s leadership, BDT has evolved into much more than a dance company; it is a vital support network where students learn discipline, leadership, and cultural appreciation. BDT’s programs offer not only dance training but also mentorship, employment, peer leadership, and life skills, equipping students to thrive in both academic and personal pursuits. Nydia’s work has earned her numerous awards.

Mark Treskon, Principal Research Associate, Urban Institute

Mark Treskon, PhD, is a principal research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute. Treskon’s research centers on equitable community development, the arts economy and creative placemaking, civic assets, financial capability, and housing and housing policy. He has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on Federal housing programs, the arts economy, community-based planning, and home lending policy advocacy. Treskon has a PhD in sociology from New York University, a Master's in Urban Planning from the University of Toronto, and BA in Geography from the University of Chicago.

Christina Hunt Wood, Multimedia Artist

Christina Hunt Wood (she/her) is an African American multimedia artist specializing in assemblage, photography, and time-based media. Her work has been exhibited widely across the Northeast, including shows at Bushel Collective (Delhi, NY), Davis Gallery at Hobart & William Smith Colleges (Geneva, NY), Maxon Mill at Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), The Torpedo Factory (Alexandria, VA), and The Painting Center (NYC). Christina is a 2022-24 Creatives Rebuild New York AEP Fellow, supported by the Mellon Foundation and Tides Institute. In 2021, she was awarded a NYSCA Individual Artist Grant, and in 2019, she was honored as a “Steward of the Catskills” by the Catskill Center. Christina holds an MFA in Visual Art from Lesley University.