An upcoming research initiative by the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis aims to better understand artists’ needs across the St. Louis region.
The Creatives Count survey will be a monthslong effort to help commission leaders understand the region’s artistic makeup. The commission will use the collected data to shape the group’s priorities, said Liz Deichmann, Regional Arts Commission Research and Evaluation lead.
“Creatives Count is really an opportunity for RAC to hear from creatives in our region, to be able to understand how best to plan our arts programs and services and upcoming years,” Deichmann said. “This is the only time that this sort of information is collected, and it's going to be a critical resource of information for governments, businesses, nonprofits and individuals who want to learn more about the region's creatives.”
Key findings from the report will be shared in October and made available through an online portal. The study will be conducted with Massachusetts-based arts research firm WolfBrown and focus on artists in film, fashion and music as well as artists with disabilities, though Deichmann said the survey is open to anyone engaged in creative work.
Artists will anonymously share where they live, their artistic focus, the challenges they face and what opportunities they need to continue their work.
The survey will also collect demographic information. St. Louis-area artists and arts leaders Mvstermind, Cami Thomas, Brandin Vaughn and Sheila Suderwalla will work with the commission as liaisons and provide more insight to survey results for the artists within the focused communities.
“Oftentimes we don't have the information we need to really understand who these creatives are, what their practices are, maybe their successes or challenges, you know, living and working in our region,” Deichmann said.
Deichmann said results of the commission’s Artist Count initiative in 2013 were critical in its introduction of individual artist grants, which go toward individual artist projects.
The arts make up a significant portion of the regional economy. A 2017 report by the commission found arts programming contributed almost $600 million across the region in 2015 and supported almost 20,000 jobs.
Initiatives aimed at supporting artists to provide funding are critical to keep them in the region, St. Louis-based visual artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer said.
“Artists need funding, we need money to live, we need money to eat, to pay our rent, bills, we're creative businesses,” said Thalhammer, who received $7,500 in commission grants to complete her latest murals near Lucas Park in downtown St. Louis. "[Individual grants] are really essential to building a creative economy and a place where artists can thrive and root down and really be their creative self.”
