The New York City department of cultural affairs has announced a sweeping new art initiative for the year ahead: a wide-ranging public artist residency known as PAIR. Focusing on important civic issues such as urban infrastructure, homelessness, hate crimes, and gun violence, four artists will be embedded within the corresponding departments in Mayor Eric Adams’ Office to create new work.

“The myth of the artist as a ‘lone genius’ holed up in their studio has been thoroughly busted,” said cultural affairs commissioner Laurie Cumbo, “we know that artists are deeply rooted in our city’s communities, and that their creative practice can act as public service.”

Over the next 12 months, the artists will apply their creative practices to a host of public challenges, according to a statement from the cultural affairs department. Each gets a $40,000 stipend, a dedicated workspace within their respective agencies, and ongoing assistance and support as they develop and present their public art projects.

“Our artists are one of our city’s greatest assets, and we’re so excited to bring their creative energy into public service through DCLA’s visionary PAIR program,” said deputy mayor Maria Torres-Springer.

The residency program, which was officially launched in 2015, was inspired by artist Mierle Ukeles’ groundbreaking involvement with the sanitation department, starting in the late 1970s. She created art that deals with the endless maintenance and service work that “keeps the city alive,” including urban waste flows, recycling, ecology, urban sustainability and our power to transform degraded land and water into healthy inhabitable public places, according to Ronald Feldman Gallery.

Ukeles’ practice questions whether people can design modes of survival that don’t damage personal and civic freedom or silence the individual’s voice, according to the gallery.

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