Creativity Connects: Trends and Conditions Affecting U.S. Artists Creativity Connects: Trends and Conditions Affecting U.S
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NEA/CCI CREATIVITY CONNECTS: TRENDS AND CONDITIONS AFFECTING U.S. ARTISTS CREATIVITY CONNECTS: CREATIVITY TRENDS AND CONDITIONS AFFECTING U.S. ARTISTS U.S. TRENDS AND CONDITIONS AFFECTING DANCE GALLERY by CENTER FOR CULTURAL INNOVATION for NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS with additional support from Surdna Foundation and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation CREATIVITY CONNECTS: TRENDS AND CONDITIONS AFFECTING U.S. ARTISTS by CENTER FOR CULTURAL INNOVATION for NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS with additional support from Surdna Foundation and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation September 2016 This report was produced through National Endowment for the Arts Cooperative Agreement DCA 2015-14 with the Center for Cultural Innovation. For the reader’s convenience, this publication contains information about outside organizations, including URLs. Inclusion of such information does not constitute an endorsement by the NEA. Research Team and Contributors The Center for Cultural Innovation assembled and coordinated the research team, which included Alexis Frasz, Marcelle Hinand, Angie Kim, Heather Peeler, Holly Sidford, and Marc Vogl. Marcelle Hinand served as project manager. Holly Sidford and Alexis Frasz of Helicon Collaborative wrote the report based on the team’s research. National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu and staff members Winona Varnon, Laura Scanlan, Jason Schupbach, Laura Callanan, and Katryna Carter worked with the research team throughout the project and coordinated all aspects of the ten Regional Roundtables in concert with state arts agency partners. Sunil Iyengar, Patricia Moore Shaffer, and Bonnie Nichols offered editorial support and government statistics about artists. Support provided by Surdna Foundation and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Bloomberg Philanthropies provided support for the Experts Convening. About the National Endowment for the Arts Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. About the Center for Cultural Innovation The Center for Cultural Innovation promotes knowledge sharing, networking, and financial independence for individual artists and creative entrepreneurs. CCI provides business training and grants; incubates innovative projects that create new knowledge, tools, and practices; and partners with investors, researchers, policymakers, and others to generate innovative solutions to the challenges facing artists. Designer: Kelli Rogowski ISBN 978-0-9793555-2-3 202-682-5496 Voice/TTY (a device for individuals who are deaf or hearing-impaired) Individuals who do not use conventional print materials may contact the Arts Endowment’s Accessibility Office at 202-682-5532 to obtain this publication in an alternate format. This publication is available free of charge in PDF format at arts.gov and cciarts.org. National Endowment for the Arts Center for Cultural Innovation 400 7th Street, SW 244 South San Pedro Street, Suite 401 Washington, DC 20506 Los Angeles, CA 90012 202-682-5400 213-687-8577 arts.gov cciarts.org TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 PART 1: SHIFTS IN THE ARTIST POPULATION AND THE WAYS ARTISTS WORK .............................................................................. 7 1. The population of artists is growing and diversifying, and norms about who is considered an artist are changing .................................................................................................................................................................................. 7 2. Substantial numbers of artists now work in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary ways ............................................. 9 3. Many artists are finding work as artists in non-arts contexts ................................................................................................ 9 4. Artists are pursuing new opportunities to work entrepreneurially ..................................................................................... 11 PART 2: TECHNOLOGY, ECONOMICS, EQUITY, AND TRAINING ............................................................................................................ 13 1. Technology is altering the context and economics of artists’ work ..................................................................................... 13 2. Artists share challenging economic conditions with other segments of the workforce ................................................. 16 3. Structural inequities in the artists’ ecosystem mirror inequities in society more broadly ............................................ 19 4. Training is not keeping pace with artists’ evolving needs and opportunities .................................................................... 20 5. Artist fellowships, grants, and awards are not responding to new ways of working ...................................................... 22 PART 3: IMPLICATIONS OF THIS RESEARCH ......................................................................................................................................... 23 1. Articulate and measure beneficial contributions of artists and creative work to societal well-being ......................... 23 2. Address artists’ income insecurity as part of larger workforce efforts ............................................................................. 24 3. Address artists’ debt and help build their assets ................................................................................................................... 24 4. Create 21st-century training systems ....................................................................................................................................... 24 5. Upgrade systems and structures that support artists ........................................................................................................... 25 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................................................................................ 27 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Interviewees, and Participants in Experts Convening .......................................................................................... 29 Appendix 2: Regional Roundtable Hosts and Participants ......................................................................................................... 31 Appendix 3: Creativz.us Essays ....................................................................................................................................................... 37 Appendix 4: Bios of Research Team ............................................................................................................................................... 73 Appendix 5: Selected Resource List ............................................................................................................................................... 75 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As the demographics of our country shift, the population 3. Structural inequities in the artists’ ecosystem mirror of artists is growing and diversifying, as are norms about those in society more broadly. who is considered an artist by the arts sector and the Race-, gender- and ability-based disparities that are general public. Artists are working in different ways—in pervasive in our society are equally prevalent in both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary contexts, as artists the nonprofit and commercial arts sectors. Despite in non-arts settings, and as entrepreneurs in business the increasing cultural and ethnic diversity of the and society. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Census country and the broadening array of cultural traditions national data sets on artists have become more refined in being practiced at expert levels, the arts ecosystem the past decade, but arguably do not capture information continues to privilege a relatively narrow band of on the full range of artists working today. Artists that may aesthetic approaches. be omitted from these data sets include those who may not seek income from their work and those who use their 4. Training and funding systems are not keeping pace artistry as part of another occupation. As the nature of with artists’ evolving needs and opportunities. artistic practice evolves, many of the existing systems that Artist training and funding systems have not caught train and support artists are not keeping pace. up to the hybrid and varied ways that artists are Artists are always influenced by larger socio-economic working today. Artist-training programs are not trends and respond to them in how they make their work adequately teaching artists the non-arts skills they and construct their lives.