We want to know how you’re doing, really: Community survey open until June 17, 2022
If you’re a cultural worker representing an organization, take the survey via this link.
If you’re an independent artist interested in taking our survey, please submit your email here.
Think back to your life in 2018, just four years ago.
We were all living very different lives. The ways in which you engaged in your arts practice probably didn’t involve social distancing, masks, or vaccines. Arts administrators were planning and managing live shows, rehearsals, exhibitions, and more without thinking beyond the capacity of a venue. Our lives in Pittsburgh’s arts community weren’t perfect, but they were certainly different.
I’m reflecting back to 2018 because it was the last time we surveyed our arts and culture community to better understand the quality of life of the cultural workforce. The result of that community survey was the 2018 report “Having Our Say, Revisited.”
We’re launching the 2022 edition of this community survey to gain actionable information about community needs, barriers, and behaviors during a time of rapid change and uncertainty.
Do you know the exact changes in our community between 2018 and today? We can guess. But that’s why community participation in this survey is so important.
We don’t want to make any assumptions about our community’s needs or wellbeing.
With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and intensifying need for equity within our industry, access to reliable, longitudinal information allows local arts agencies like ours to better serve their local creative communities.
“No one else collects this data locally,” explains Morgan Kasprowicz, Manager of Research and Special Projects at the Arts Council and the project manager for this survey. “Even though national data is available around these topics, we can’t make assumptions based on national data. We’re missing huge pieces of information that are specific to our community here in Pittsburgh and surrounding municipalities.”
The 2022 edition of our community survey focuses on both independent artists, as well as the arts organizations and the creative workers employed by them. Our questions focus on learning about quality of life and access to basic needs, financial stability, job security, barriers and resource needs of our region's artists and cultural workforce. We're also interested in more precisely measuring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and learning more about how organizations are acting on matters of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion.
Survey fatigue? We got your back.
Everyone is sending surveys, and we understand you’re tired of taking them. As an acknowledgment that your time is valuable, artists who complete this survey will receive a $15 Reward Link Preferred gift card for a retailer of your choice within the Reward Link Catalogue.
For cultural workers taking the survey on behalf of their employer, you'll have the option to submit your email address to be entered into a raffle for a $50 gift card (we’ll pull 10 names!).
What are we doing with all this data?
The results of this survey will be published in a report for the community to use this fall. All responses will remain anonymous and no identifying information will be included. Even if you supply your email address to enter the raffle, it will be removed before the data is analyzed and shared.
This data will help the Arts Council and other organizations that support the region's artists to be stronger and better-informed programmers, communicators, and advocates for you. It will also provide an opportunity for us to benchmark responses against regional peers and data found in 2018.
If you’re a cultural worker representing an organization, take the survey via this link. You’ll have the option to enter your email for a chance to win one of 10 $50 gift cards!
If you’re an independent artist interested in taking our survey, please submit your email here and we’ll send you a link directly, so you can also receive the $15 gift card. The survey closes on Friday, June 17th.
We’re grateful to the Henry L. Hillman Foundation for funding this project and making payments to survey participants payments possible. This project also wouldn’t have been possible without the care and leadership of Morgan and the Pittsburgh Arts Research Committee, a group of more than 15 local researchers and arts administrators.
If you would like to know more about this project or how this data will be used, feel free to reach out to Morgan Kasprowicz at mkasprowicz@pittsburghartscouncil.org.