In 2021, Springboard for the Arts launched one of the first Guaranteed Income pilots in the country focused on individual artists and creative workers in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The goal of the pilot was to explore the impact of guaranteed income on artists, culture bearers and creative workers at a neighborhood level and to provide a national model for the inclusion of artists in policies that address economic inequity.

In a new report, The Art of Economic Justice: An Impact Report on Guaranteed Income Pilots for Artists and Creative Workers in Minnesota, Springboard for the Arts shares what they’ve learned and examines some of the emergent themes on the impact of the program.

“Artists have valuable skills to help us build social connections, improve mental health, rethink public spaces, and tackle our most pressing challenges like environmental justice, racial equity, and education,” says Laura Zabel, Springboard for the Arts executive director. “If we are going to tap into artists’ skills to help us imagine a new future, we need to find new ways to support the sustainability of our creative community.”

This initiative advances Springboard’s work to build a national model for the inclusion of artists in just economic policies, as Springboard works in solidarity with leaders in these movements.

Springboard is now launching Phase II of the pilot project, announced in late February, which will deepen its work in the Rondo and Frogtown neighborhoods of Saint Paul and expand to artists in Otter Tail County, MN. Through Phase II:

• 75 artists, culture bearers and creative workers will receive $500 per month in unrestricted support for 18 months, centering individuals who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and/or individuals with disabilities.
• Springboard will fund a new series of artist-led public projects highlighting root causes that lead to the need for guaranteed income, and its impact on families and communities.
• Springboard’s research partnership with the University of Pennsylvania Center for Guaranteed Income Research will continue, which will further collect and analyze the impact of guaranteed income on individual and community levels.

During Phase I of the project, the City of Saint Paul and Springboard also partnered on an ongoing narrative change project: Artists Respond: People, Place, and Prosperity. This growing cohort of artists has created public projects that demonstrate the root causes that lead to the need for guaranteed income, and the impact of guaranteed income on the families and communities that are supported by it.

Artists Respond: People, Place, and Prosperity is a project of the City of Saint Paul and Springboard for the Arts, supported by Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, and The Kresge Foundation.

The Art of Economic Justice impact report was supported by The Kresge Foundation, Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Saint Paul Financial Empowerment, and People’s Prosperity: Guaranteed Income Pilot Program.

Learn more: https://springboardforthearts.org/guaranteed-income/