Like many artists, Tom Beale wears protective gear while working on his sculptures and realized he was in a position to help.

"Hearing about this shortage of protective equipment that they were experiencing in so many places, including N95 masks, kept being mentioned, and I'm very familiar with these. I use them in my studio and I knew I had some," Tom told us via an online conversation.

Beale donated his gear through Mask Crusaders, a callout to artists to outline what they have to donate so medical and other frontline workers can get what they need, either by delivery or pickup.

Artist Shabd Simon-Alexander helped create the Mask Crusaders exchange.

"In the first 24 hours that we had this available, we saw 3,000 items get placed with frontline workers and another 20,000 were available for pickup, and now it;s been about five days, and we have almost 40,000 on the NY list. And we’ve been contacted by people in about 20 other cities that want to start their own," she said.

Cynthia Lynch, with the New York State Association of Licensed Midwives, says these donations are crucial for her members, who can't practice social distancing while delveiring a baby.

"A deliery can take hours. That’s stressful if they don’t have the protection to keep themselves safe and to keep the other patients on the unit safe," she said.

Arts and culture organizations like MOMA, the Whitney and the South Street Seaport Museum are also looking into their supply closets and sending out shipments.

"We have artifacts, and so we use protective gear, but we also maintain a fleet of historical ships, and all of that is sort of industrial work. so we use things like Tyvek suits and respirator masks and facegear," said Captain Jonathan Boulware, president of the South Street Seaport Museum. 
　
The Captain says weathering storms with teamwork is part of good seamanship. Artists like Peale can relate.

"Many artists are deeply engaged with social justice and doing something that’s really positive making a positive contribution to the world and it’s just goes hand in hand with being an artist," he said.