About NY Artists Equity
Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence and Jacob Lawrence
Photo credit: Arnold Newman 1947
NYAE is a registered 501c3, non-profit, artists association founded in 1947 by a group of well-known practitioners, among them Jacob Lawrence, his wife Gwendolyn Knight, Louise Nevelson, Paul Cadmus and Edward Hopper, to support the professional aspirations of fellow artists and to aide their economic well-being. Currently, NYAE supports a diverse membership, comprising artists, patrons and allied professionals, with career-building opportunities and community engagement via gallery exhibitions, regrants, public art sites, lectures, tours and symposia.
Since 2015 NYAE has operated Equity Gallery, its public facing venue located on the Lower East Side of New York City. Equity Gallery offers year-round, open access programming showcasing under-recognized artists of high merit—often from underserved communities. All of Equity Gallery’s programming is professionally adjudicated with the aim of benchmarking artistic accomplishment as an aspirant goal for both the NYAE membership and the greater arts community.