Los Angeles Artist Census, 2018 – Ongoing

Los Angeles Artist Census addresses the lack of knowledge of the life of working artists in Los Angeles County. This research initiative involves collecting data on LA-based artists to gain a better understanding of need versus resources-available to artists in the city.

Modeled after the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which collects data on people in the US to determine how federal and state funds are distributed each year, the L.A. Artist Census will provide much needed data on the quality of life of local artists. The data will include information like debt, monthly income and expenses, housing, healthcare, and employment.

Similar to the American Community Survey, the objective of collecting this information is to provide artists, art institutions, funders, and policy makers with a clearer picture of what the needs are of artists in our community. The Census will take the form of an online application and will be promoted as a community-wide endeavor through local art institutions as well as through word-of-mouth. Collected data will be compiled, published, and made available as a public resource.

This is a socially engaged art research project that responds to the expanding art scene in Los Angeles and the subsequent need for more support for artist communities in the city. It aspires to bring attention to the needs of contemporary artists while critiquing and reimagining existing systems of power, particularly through funding, in the art world. This project intends to foster community and self-empowerment amongst artists whilst creating a public dialog about these issues.

Los Angeles Artist Census is for the L.A. art community but could extend as a model to other cities, acting as a measure to assess what needs and resources exist for artists in cities throughout the United States.

Los Angeles Artist Census is un-funded and volunteer-run. We are fiscally sponsored by Fulcrum Arts and your donation is 100% tax deductible. To make a donation. 

For more information, visit: www.losangelesartistcensus.com or @losangelesartistcensus

 

Los Angeles Artist Census Office (Pictured at the ICA LA’s Field Workshop)

The Los Angeles Artist Census Office is a practical and conceptual organizing space for the Los Angeles Artist Census. The office visually maps the project’s various areas of research by color-coding documents to corresponding categories. It includes:

– A growing analog library of reports by organizations and artists on the art industry (pink documents)
– Information on data collection and analysis (green documents)
– Relevant sample surveys and question-building methodologies (yellow documents)
– Information about economic and ecological sustainability (blue documents)

– And the project’s graphic design and admin (white documents).

 The office is a living installation that evolves and reorganizes over time, with each category sprawling out or condensing as different parts of the project unfold. It also materializes the labor, research, and collectivizing for an otherwise immaterial project, with the intention of making it transparent and accessible to the community.

Los Angeles Artist Census is a project of Fulcrum Arts’ Emerge fiscal sponsorship program.