New York City has a world-renowned arts, entertainment and recreation sector, featuring celebrated performance venues, museums and sports teams as well as innovative artists and centers of creativity. The City’s status as a cultural powerhouse provides unparalleled offerings to foster new and established artists, making the sector vital to the City’s economy. The sector includes workers in the performing arts, spectator sports, museums, historic sites, amusement parks and arcades industries. In March 2020, the response to the COVID-19 pandemic forced the entire sector to close, impacting employment. To aid this hard-hit sector, the Shuttered Venues Operator Grant program was created by the federal government to provide grants to shuttered entities such as theatrical producers and museum operators. Businesses in the City received over 900 awards totaling $1.3 billion before the program closed.
