SRI Education’s latest study, “Creativity Challenge: The State of Arts Education in California,” commissioned by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation as a follow-up to the 2007 “An Unfinished Canvas: Arts Education in California.” The report reveals that a majority of California schools continue to fail to meet the state’s arts education mandate of offering all California students dance, music, theater, and visual arts instruction.

This Arts Data Profile gives national and state-level estimates of artists in the workforce. The figures derive from American Community Survey (ACS) data covering 2015-2019. The ACS is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. State-level estimates are available for the total number of artists and for each individual type of artist (workers in any of 13 specific artist occupations).

State arts agencies, regional arts organizations, and local arts councils are in a unique position within the creative ecosystem to cultivate infrastructure supporting the intersection of arts and technology. As organizations across the country begin to understand and support emerging practices rooted in the use of code, computation, and data, the cumulative impact can improve career sustainability for artists and create a solid foundation for the field’s growth— locally, regionally, and nationally. In addition, digital arts practitioners and creative technologists are expanding access for artists and public audiences, as well as advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the areas of arts and science. For these reasons, strategic investment from public and private funders, both those already invested in tech-centered arts as well as newcomers to supporting the field, can boost the cultural sector’s capacity to serve artists and the public by supporting arts practices focused on technology as a creative medium.

This report is the result of a two-year research initiative exploring the multifaceted creative practices of artists who engage with digital technologies. The research examines the creative infrastructure supporting tech-focused artistic practices and provides insight into the existing challenges and opportunities faced by artists and organizations working at the intersection of arts and technology. Tech as Art is part of an Arts & Technology Field Scan conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Ford Foundation and the Knight Foundation.

Ten essays by art practitioners were commissioned as a companion to the report. 

National Endowment for the Arts research staff surveyed national service organizations in the arts and interviewed arts organizations and consultants about reopening practices of organizations that have resumed in-person programming in 2020, during the pandemic. This guide presents promising tactics and insights through nine case studies. 

This research brief is a based on an analysis of the overlap between different art forms and genres when it comes to people’s choice of arts activities. Based on findings from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, the brief discusses in particular the positive association between consuming the arts digitally and attending in-person arts events.