Who are Midwest artists? What art do they make? How do they live, and work?
These are a few questions that a first-of-its-kind National Survey of Artists, can help us answer. We’ll dive into the findings, and what they mean for the Midwest, in a moment.
But first, a brief explainer on why this survey fills a very necessary gap in arts data.
Just want the numbers? Jump to our analysis.
Watch the Webinar
Midwest Takeaways from the National Survey of Artists
In this webinar with Joanna Woronkowicz of I/O Research and Gwendolyn Rugg of NORC, go deeper into findings from a first-of-its-kind survey and sampling approach to identify and learn about U.S. artists, and what it can tell us about their lives, work, and economic realities in the Midwest and beyond.
Featuring
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Gwendolyn Rugg
Senior Research Scientist, NORC
Gwendolyn Rugg is a Senior Research Scientist at NORC. Over the past decade she has co-directed NORC’s portfolio of research studies and program evaluations focused on arts and culture, including several on the creative workforce.
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Joanna Woronkowicz
Founder, I/O Research
Joanna Woronkowicz is a cultural economist studying labor, investment, and technology in the arts. She is professor at Indiana University’s O’Neill School and visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School, researching artists’ careers and cultural policy.
The National Survey of Artists offers one of the most comprehensive portraits to date of how artists live, work, and sustain their practices.
The National Survey of Artists offers one of the most comprehensive portraits to date of how artists live, work, and sustain their practices.
The Data We’ve Been Missing
The data on working artists in America has always had a blind spot.
Federal labor surveys are our best tool for tracking arts employment, but they aren’t built to capture artists whose primary employment is outside of their artistic practice.
For instance, the American Community Survey tracks artists by looking at people whose primary job is in a creative occupation. Per 2023 findings, about 1.0% of the Midwest workforce, roughly 609,000 people, report working primarily in the creative sector, compared to 1.3% nationally.
But here’s the rub: That definition leaves out artists who hold secondary jobs or who patch together several income streams. If you make most of your living as a carpenter but also teach music lessons and pick up gigs as a musician, you won’t be counted as an artist.
That’s a problem.
As the National Survey of Artists findings report says, “When there is insufficient data on the number of working artists nationwide and how their lives and livelihoods are structured. . . this limits the ability of funders and policymakers to make crucial decisions about how best to support them.”
This critical gap led the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund the National Survey of Artists, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. NORC, the National Opinion Research Center, is a nonpartisan organization working in insight and analysis.
“By expanding notions of who counts as an artist and surveying this expanded artist population, this study offers one of the most comprehensive portraits to date of how artists live, work, and sustain their practices,” states NORC.
How the National Survey of Artists Works
To better understand artists beyond their primary occupations, the National Survey of Artists asked respondents about creative practice itself.
What do you make? Do others recognize you for it? Do you share your work beyond your immediate circle? How much time does it take?
NORC’s five-part screener (spanning practice, engagement, audience, recognition, and hours) found something striking: about 18% of U.S. adults would qualify as practicing artists under this definition, a much larger picture than any employment-based survey has ever shown us.
In total, the National Survey of Artists reached 2,618 adult artists, including 473 in the Midwest*. Here’s what it found.
*Data from the survey are not available broken down by state, so we’re reporting on the Midwest as a nine-state region: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
NORC, the National Opinion Research Center“When there is insufficient data on the number of working artists nationwide and how their lives and livelihoods are structured. . . this limits the ability of funders and policymakers to make crucial decisions about how best to support them.”
Midwestern Artists Are More Multidisciplinary
Using each respondent’s main art form as a starting point, the survey sorted artists across performing arts, visual arts, craft arts, writing, and other forms.
One of the clearest ways the Midwest stands out in this data is our breadth of art forms. The average artist in our region reports creating within 3.8 art forms, versus 3.2 elsewhere.
This suggests that many artists in the region combine more than one mode of practice rather than fitting neatly into a single category. (Or we’re just too talented to stay in one lane!)
For main artistic discipline, Midwestern artists lean a bit more toward performing arts than the rest of the country. Performing arts was the main discipline for about 35% of Midwest artists, compared to 31% nationally, and visual arts accounted for about 30% in both.
Income Comes from Everywhere
For most artists, here and across the country, no single income source carries the whole load.
More than half of Midwest artists reported wage or salary income from an employer (57%), income from artwork sales (54%), and self-employment, freelance, or gig income (51%).
About 54% received financial support from a family member, spouse, partner, or friend. And about 39% reported public or social support income, which includes public assistance, Social Security, unemployment, VA payments, and workers’ compensation.
What stands out is that grants, awards, fellowships, and residencies are part of the income mix for only about 20% of Midwest artists, and 23% outside of the Midwest.
Formal arts funding is important and meaningful. But for most artists, it’s just one piece of a much larger financial puzzle.
Paid Work Takes Many Forms
About 80% of Midwest artists did at least one paid job or activity in the past year. Among that group, 72% said that job was arts-related.
But the structure of that work tells a more complicated story. Almost half (47%) are self-employed or freelance in their main job. About 49% had at least one temporary job. And 80% say they have at least one part-time job.
Looking at these numbers, it’s extra clear that any data that doesn’t accurately capture how artists piece together self-employed, part-time, or contingent work is missing how most Midwest artists make it work.
The Midwest <3 Volunteering
About 53% of Midwest artists did volunteer arts work in the past year, and about 44% did unpaid arts work, meaning our artistic communities are sustained not just by paid jobs.
Our high rates of volunteerism track with trends we’ve seen in other data sets, including the American Time Use Survey, which show that Midwesterners spend more time participating in arts volunteering than other parts of the country.
Is volunteering part of Midwest culture? Or are there fewer paid opportunities to go around, leading to higher rates of unpaid work?
This data doesn’t give us more insight into that question, but it’s clear that a lot of what keeps the arts going here may not show up in a monetary way.
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Covered, Mostly. Worried, Sometimes
The study shows many Midwest artists are worried about debt and medical bills despite high (90%) health insurance access. Only 34% reported retirement benefits; less than a third reported paid holidays and vacations; and only a quarter reported paid sick leave.
Selected Benefits Accessed in the Past 12 Months
Midwest vs Elsewhere
Source National Survey of Artists
That means over a third of Midwest artists are worried about paying debts, medical costs, and being able to work as many hours as they want. And 22% of Midwest artists have disabilities; 40% manage chronic health conditions. These artists’ work often depends on mobility, access to care, health, and wellbeing—all factors in their abilities to make art.
All that being said—the Midwest is ahead of the rest of the country on most measures of benefits, and artists here are slightly less worried about next-month needs. They were less worried about paying debts (36% versus 41% nationally) and less worried about rent or mortgage (28% versus 31%).
These differences might be tied to the Midwest’s overall lower cost of living, allowing artists more financial freedom outside of higher-cost cities. But the numbers still point to concerning trends for the wellbeing of artists.
Somewhat or Very Worried about Next-Month Needs
Midwest vs Elsewhere
Source National Survey of Artists
Our Takeaway
The National Survey of Artists confirms what many of us already know: Artists across the country are navigating a complex mix of creative breadth, multiple income sources, flexible paid work, unpaid labor, and uneven access to benefits.
In the Midwest, artists make ends meet—and make art—in non-traditional ways. (After all, that’s what the Midwest is best at.)
To best support artists here, future conversations about funding, advocacy, and support need to account for all of it.