If you are staff, board, contractor or volunteer at an arts nonprofit in LA County,* please complete this survey!
Esta encuesta también se encuentra en español.
This survey is now closed for 2017. Thank you to everyone who participated. More than 1,900 people from 312 arts organizations across LA County responded. DataArts has begun crunching the data. We expect to report back on findings later this year.
The LA County Arts Commission plans to repeat the survey next year. We look forward to working with you as we continue to collect data that will help us improve cultural equity and inclusion in the arts and culture in LA County.
For a second year in a row, the LA County Arts Commission is conducting a survey to measure the diversity of the arts and culture workforce in LA County. This survey will tell us the status of our arts and culture workforce and how it has changed since last year. Your participation is crucial to ensure the success of this project. It should take you no more than five minutes to complete this survey.
Read the results of the baseline survey here.
What the survey asks: The survey asks questions about gender, heritage (such as race and ethnicity), age, disability status and LGBTQ identification. Individuals who work, volunteer or are on the boards of arts organizations across LA County will respond anonymously.
What will happen to your data: The survey is administered by DataArts (formerly the Cultural Data Project). DataArts will analyze the data and report back to us on aggregate findings. Only DataArts will have access to individual responses.
Why this survey is important: Arts, culture and creativity are an important part of our quality of life, and in LA County the arts and culture sector is an important part of the local economy. The sector must be diverse and inclusive in its leadership, workforce, creative talent, patrons and participants in order to be relevant to and representative of our changing society. Knowing the demographic makeup of our arts workforce is one key tool to help us ensure all residents of LA County have access to all the opportunities offered by the arts.
You have until September 5 to complete the survey. If you have any questions, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page which will be updated as new questions arise. Collecting and sharing this demographic information is strongly encouraged. However, participation in this survey is voluntary. You may complete some, all, or none of the questions. It is entirely up to you, and your choice will have no bearing on the status of your organization's Cultural Data Profile (CDP).
About the initiative: This survey is part of the County’s larger Cultural Equity and Inclusion in the Arts Initiative. The CEII initiative was an 18-month public process that led to the development of recommendations to the Board of Supervisors to ensure that everyone in LA County has equitable access to arts and culture, and to improve inclusion in the wider arts ecology for all residents in every community. Five of these recommendations, in addition to this survey, were approved and funded by the LA County Board of Supervisors.
About DataArts: DataArts is a nonprofit organization that empowers the arts and cultural sector with high-quality data and resources in order to strengthen its vitality, performance, and public impact. The Cultural Data Profile (CDP) is DataArts’ flagship service, which thousands of cultural nonprofits use annually to report their financial and programmatic information. DataArts is committed to advancing policies and practices that support diversity, equity, and inclusion in the organization and across the arts, culture, and humanities sector. Having reliable information on the boards, staff, volunteers, and artistic personnel that power cultural nonprofits will help the sector reflect and respond by identifying trends, opportunities, and gaps in ways that inspire action and change when needed. The DataArts workforce survey is the result of robust collaboration with organizations from across the nonprofit and public sector, including dozens of public and private grantmaking entities, which are conducting complementary demographic data studies. Learn more at www.culturaldata.org
*Please note that the survey is limited to organizations that have received a grant from the LA County Arts Commission, the California Arts Council, or from the arts and culture divisions of the cities of Los Angeles, Culver City, Long Beach, Santa Clarita, Santa Monica, Torrance or West Hollywood. If you are not a grantee of these funders you will not be able to complete the survey.
Click here to access a list of organizations eligible to take the survey.
Click here to access a list of the survey questions in PDF format.
DISCLAIMER: Collecting and sharing this optional demographic information is strongly encouraged as a best practice that can make your work more effective; however, this survey is voluntary. You may complete some, all, or none of the questions. It is entirely up to you, and your choice will have no bearing on the status of your organization's Cultural Data Profile. All information will be aggregated anonymously and reported back to your organization's primary contact. Only DataArts will have access to individual responses at this time. DataArts uses demographic information to tailor our services to the nonprofit arts, cultural, and humanities sector, and to further our mission to empower the sector with high-quality data and resources in order to strengthen its vitality, performance, and public impact. Grantmakers will have access to aggregated survey data for your organization, as well as a complete aggregated roll-up of the survey data for all organizations in their applicant pool. DataArts may allow third-parties, such as researchers, advocates, educational organizations or service providers, to use aggregated data from the survey for the purposes of serving or informing the nonprofit arts, cultural, and humanities sector and its stakeholders. On occasion, DataArts may also share aggregated survey information with other partners, researchers, and service providers in order to create, test, and market new services and tools for the nonprofit arts, cultural, and humanities sector. By taking this survey, you agree to the uses of your data described here and acknowledge that any interpretation or view expressed in any work product created using any aggregated survey dataset will be solely that of the researcher or other user.