ART BELONGS HERE
Harvey’s Arts Platform for New York City
For Harvey Epstein, the arts aren’t just entertainment—they are the heartbeat of New York City. He knows they connect us to one another, keep our neighborhoods vibrant, and anchor our local economy. Before the pandemic, nearly 300,000 New Yorkers worked in the cultural sector, fueling small businesses and generating over $100 billion in activity. Harvey Epstein understands those numbers represent people, families, and communities that depend on the arts. That’s why, as your next Council Member, he will fight to ensure the arts not only recover but thrive—because when the arts thrive, New York thrives.
Cut Red Tape, Fund the Arts
Harvey Epstein has seen firsthand how contract delays, late payments, and bureaucracy strangle small organizations. He believes it is unacceptable for city agencies to hold up funding. In the City Council, Harvey Epstein will push to streamline the city’s funding process and hold agencies accountable when they don’t pay on time. While groups wait on city dollars, he will establish a revolving loan fund so that the smallest organizations—those closest to our communities—can keep their doors open and programs running.
Invest in Creativity, Match Every Dollar
Harvey Epstein knows that working artists—filmmakers, performers, and visual artists—are too often shut out of city funding streams. To fix this, he will fight in the City Council for a new public–private matching fund that gives individual artists the resources they need. Under Harvey Epstein’s plan, the fund would be administered with transparency and accountability by trusted nonprofits, ensuring every dollar New Yorkers invest in artists is matched to double its impact.
Keep Indie Film Alive
Independent filmmakers are vital to New York’s cultural identity, and Harvey Epstein believes they deserve the same support that large-scale productions receive. Too often, indie creators face steep hurdles just to shoot in the city. Harvey Epstein will champion a permitting process scaled to the size of a project, so grassroots creators aren’t buried in paperwork and fees while blockbuster productions take the lion’s share of benefits. Supporting indie film, in Harvey Epstein’s view, means supporting the diverse voices and stories that make New York unique.
No Neighborhood Without the Arts
Harvey Epstein knows that rising rents and real estate speculation are pushing artists and cultural spaces out of the very neighborhoods they helped build. He will work to guarantee that government-owned spaces are made permanently available—free or at low cost—to nonprofit cultural groups. As your next City Council Member, Harvey Epstein will also ensure that when rezoning or redevelopment happens, arts spaces are preserved as part of the fabric of our communities. For Harvey Epstein, no neighborhood should exist without culture.
Health Care for Creators and Small Orgs
Freelancers and small nonprofits face impossible health care costs, and Harvey Epstein believes that artists should never have to choose between their health and their art. He will fight to remove legal barriers so nonprofits with fewer than 25 employees can band together to create pooled, affordable insurance options. Under Harvey Epstein’s vision, health care will be portable, affordable, and accessible for every creative worker in New York City—because keeping our communities creative means keeping our creators healthy.