A new city program will use federal pandemic relief funds to provide internship opportunities for young people interested in careers in the arts. The program administered by the city’s Office of Arts and Culture will provide money to local arts groups and businesses in the creative sector.

The program will be funded with $50,000 from the city’s $17.1 million award under the American Rescue Plan Act. Altogether, Kingston’s ARPA plan calls for spending $1,042,500 on initiatives to support the city’s arts, culture and tourism sector. In a statement announcing the program, Noble said the workforce development effort was part of a broader plan to support a key economic sector that was hit hard by the pandemic.

“What we heard over and over [during development of the plan] was the need to support our arts community, which was thriving here in Kingston before the pandemic,” said Noble. “We hope this program will help two-fold — by encouraging young people to enter the arts, and to assist the organizations in getting back on their feet.”

To qualify, participating businesses and organizations must be within Kingston city limits and have been operating in the city prior to Oct. 1, 2021. The program is open to both nonprofit and private-sector organizations. The internship initiative also takes in a broad range of art and art-related businesses. In addition to traditional fine and performing arts, the program is open to trade and business aspects of the creative economy and fields like architecture, media and publishing.

“The creative economy has no standard definition but can be thought of as the sum of all the parts of the creative industries, including trade, labor, and production,” reads a description of the program at www.engagekingston.com.

The program will pay participants to hire students or recent graduates to intern for one semester in the summer and fall of 2023 and 2024. Qualifying interns must be current high school, undergraduate or graduate students or have graduated high school, college or graduate school in 2023 or 2024.