Advocacy, Research, Trends

REPORT ON ARTISTS

Mapping Artists and Cultural Workers in Canada's Large Cities

The report from cultural research firm Hill Strategies provides and analysis of artists and cultural workers residing in five Canadian cities including Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. Calgary findings include information on the city's 5,100 artists and 23,300 cultural workers and show that Calgary's creative labour force tends to cluster in centrally located neighbourhoods near the downtown core.

The City of Calgary, Calgary Arts Development and Calgary Economic Development were all involved.  Here's what each organization had to say:

"The integral role of our city's creative human capital in building strong neighbourhoods is underlined by this report," says Terry Rock, President & CEO of Calgary Arts Development. "First and foremost, we know that Calgary has to be a great place to live and work as an artist if we want a thriving cultural sector."

"These research findings reinforces our core understanding that cultural workers and cultural economics are essential elements in building the complete communities we've identified as a way of planning the future of Calgary in the City's Plan It process," says Beth Gignac, Manager of Arts & Culture for the City of Calgary.

"With more than 7,000 students graduating from the city's four major post secondary institutions with creative industries-related degrees on a yearly basis, the cultural sector is a major contributor to the development and growth of vibrant creative communities throughout our city," says Luke Azevedo Commissioner Film, Television & Creative Industries at Calgary Economic Development.

Some of the key findings from the study about Calgary's artists and cultural workers include:

  • 5,100 artists live in Calgary.  This includes occupations like actors and comedians, artisans and craftspeople, authors and writers, musicians, dancers and other performers, visual artists, producers, directors and choreographers.

 

  • The concentration of artists in Calgary (0.8% of the local labour force) is higher than the provincial average (0.6%) and equal to the Canadian average (0.8%).

 

  • 10 Calgary neighbourhoods with the highest concentration of artists, which house 45% (2,300) of all artists in the city. The two neighbourhoods with the highest artistic concentrations are those with T2S and T2N postal codes.

 

  •  The report also outlines demographic details about artists, including education (42$ of all Calgary artists have at least a bachelor's degree), number of female versus male artists and median earnings of artists ($14,500, which is 54% less than all Calgary workers)

 

  • Calgary has 23,300 cultural workers, or 41% of all cultural workers in Alberta.  48 occupation groups are captured as cultural workers, including creative, production, technical and management occupations in the areas of broadcasting, film and video, sound recording, performing arts, publishing, printing, libraries, archives, heritage, architecture and design.

 

  • Toronto has the largest number of artists (22,300), followed by Montreal (13,400), Vancouver (8,200), Calgary (5,100) and Ottawa (4,600).  Collectively, the 53,500 artists in these five large cities represent 38% of all artists in Canada, a proportion that is much higher than the five cities' share of the overall Canadian labour force (21%).

 

  • The five cities collectively have 209,500 cultural workers, representing 34% of all cultural workers in Canada.

The full report on the study is available online.  Click here to read the report.  Please see page 60 of the report for a map graphic of the ten Calgary neighbourhoods with the highest concentration of artists.

 

THE BUSINESS OF ARTS: WHAT FOR-PROFIT BUSINESS SAYS

It takes guts to run an Arts business! Neither good Art nor good Business just "happen". For both, sound planning and courageous management are essential. Successful Arts management allows artistic risk-taking which is critical if that Art form is to flourish. Reynolds, Mirth, Richards & Farmer LLP

At Cyries Energy, we take pride in associating our business with quality partners. Businesses who partner with arts organizations can learn a thing or two, whether it be prudent fiscal management, risk taking, development of strategic alliances or encouraging innovation….the relationship truly becomes a two-way street.

The for-profit business world provides self reward, the non-profit world provides social reward, to all who dream, sacrifice and endure. M3 Financial Group chooses to support a non-profit arts organization as we share the common passion of inspiring dreams.

Ferrari Westwood Architects is proud to support non-profit arts organizations because they enhance the quality of life in our community, and they help promote future growth by attracting and retaining new businesses. As a professional architectural business, we too endeavour to create a more appealing and engaging community.

Edmonton Economic Development Corporation recognizes the importance of the first class cultural flagship institutions that attract new employees to meet the escalating demand for labour in all sectors of the economy. We are selling the quality of life in the region and major cultural institutions are part of that quality of life.

From the VP Fluor Canada Ltd.: Like many others I don't have the skills to create art, but feel the absolute necessity to be nurtured by it.

 

THE BUSINESS OF ARTS:

After a decade of increasing attention and scholarly effort, arts management is being recognized as an independent discipline that may be recognized on its own merits, but also for its contribution to general management study. Arts management is typically project based and so marked by innovation. Responding to the reality of intermittent workers, specific styles of leadership and models of leadership (ie the dual artistic director/business manager) have emerged. The June 2009 issue of The Harvard Business Review includes an article focusing on this phenomenon, and its relevance to management of many well-known corporations. From Hewlett-Packard to Coco Channel, this kind of arts management approach is shown to be extremely effective, especially in an unstable economy. See, “Innovation in Turbulent Times”.

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