Latest Artist Survey Data
By Margaret A. Keough
COVID-19 Continuing Impact Survey Measures One Year of Pandemic’s Effects on Artists
This survey marks the third time that Mid-America Arts Alliance’s Artist INC program has gathered feedback from individual artists to measure how the global COVID-19 pandemic has effected them specifically. With this one-year mark, we wanted to identify artists’ confidence in their arts livelihoods; determine their ability to access and receive funds through the key components of the CARES Act, the December 2020 stimulus, and arts emergency relief grants; and compare their reported abilities to sustain financially in the short-term to previous survey results (March 2020, May 2020).
From the Summary of Findings
- One year into the pandemic, three of four artists report negative or extremely negative impacts on their art practice.
- Almost one in five artists are currently unable to practice their art.
- Consistent with March 2020 and May 2020 surveys, six in 10 artists continue to report negative impacts from the pandemic on their creative output.
- Significantly less artists need support than early in the pandemic. In May 2020 eight of ten artists needed support. Currently only four of ten artists report needing support. Of those needing support, the primary need is financial.
- Nine of tenSix of 10 artists have lost income in two or more revenue streams. artists have lost income due to the pandemic.
- More than eight in ten artists anticipate future income loss, but in most areas, they anticipate less future loss than what they have experienced to date.
Read the full report here, and listen to Artist INC’s Kathy Liao discuss it on public radio’s Up to Date.
