If knowledge is power, artists in Miami-Dade are hoping to get a lot more powerful in the coming years.
A collective of roughly 100 Miami-Dade artists are launching the , as part of an effort to collect data about themselves to better advocate for their needs with policy makers and funders.
The 鈥渃ensus鈥� will gather all sorts of information from artists, with the purpose of understanding the local arts community on a more granular level: What it has, what it lacks.
鈥淚 know very few artists who aren't struggling to make rent. I know very few artists who don't complain about feeling as if the institutions in our city don't serve us, don't listen to us, don't care about us, even though they've oftentimes claimed to on their websites or in their talks,鈥� Misael Soto, an artist and self-described 鈥渃hief instigator鈥� of the project, told WLRN.
But when it comes to addressing the needs of individual artists, there is very little information available. Most information about the arts and cultural world is based on the top-level economic impact of the arts, on the amount of beds that get filled at hotels, ticket sales and jobs created.
A recent study, for example, found that the arts and cultural industry generates in Miami-Dade every year.
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For Soto, that top level analysis leaves out the most important rung in the ecological food chain: The actual wellbeing of local artists whose work appears in galleries and venues 鈥� the very locals who program experiences for guests who spend money in hotels, bars and restaurants.
鈥淲hen you start to look around, you realize all of the information that's out there is very limited. It's very siloed, and it is typically produced for the needs 鈥� ultimately 鈥� of an institution, or a government agency,鈥� said Soto. 鈥淪o we were like, okay. Then, we need to do our own [information]. If it's going to be for us, it's going to serve us, it needs to be by us. The census kind of has two goals: One is to affect policy making and funders鈥� viewpoints on what we need, and how they might be able to help us. The other one is self advocacy.鈥�
The Miami Artists Census project stemmed from a collective of Miami-based artists called , which was founded with the vision of bringing collective power to artists of the region in early 2023. The collective boasts about 100 independent artists that participate.
For the purposes of the census, Soto said the group encourages anyone who self-identifies as an artist to participate. The term 鈥淢iami鈥� is used in the colloquial sense: Miami-Dade County. Since much of the information might be used to advocate local policy makers, it made sense to draw hard lines on the map.
In order to connect with artists, the group hopes to do outreach with the arts community through providing fliers at galleries, art spaces and institutions. The hope is that since those institutions might have an interest in the outcome of a census, it will breed synergy.
鈥淚t kind of creates a cyclical thing where: Your mission is you鈥檙e here to serve a lot of us [artists], and we鈥檙e doing this project where we can advocate for ourselves. Do you want to help us get the word out?鈥� You could think of it as canvassing the county,鈥� said soto.
Preparing the census
Much care has been taken to develop the 90 or so specific questions that artists will be asked during the survey (some questions ask follow-ups depending on the response). The group did this through a collaborative process that at times felt exhaustive.
鈥淥nce people are in the [census], It will feel maximally inclusive and inviting,鈥� said artist Carrie Sieh, who will help with data analysis. 鈥淚 think that most of us have had the experience of filling out other people's surveys geared towards artists, where we read the questions and then think, this doesn't really feel like it was written for me.鈥� Or 鈥� 鈥榖ut what about my experience? It doesn't fit into any of these answers.鈥� And it was one of the main things that we worked on actually, was trying to really figure out how we could be more inclusive.鈥�
鈥淎ll of this data together is sort of painting a picture.鈥�Tatiana Vahan
In addition to asking questions about salary and access to healthcare, Sieh said, there are also inquiries about the general wellbeing and future prospects of work for people in the art space.
鈥淣ot only do we have a question asking respondents if they've considered leaving Miami, but we also ask them what have been the biggest challenges to you personally in being an artist in Miami. I think that that will also be very interesting and useful information for decision makers to have.鈥�
The Artist Census is being launched months after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the entire state budget for arts grants 鈥� amounting to $32 million in slashed arts and culture funding. On top of those state cuts, Miami-Dade County just in the budget that passed in late September. County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava originally proposed a $2.5 million cut to arts and culture grants.
Those funding cuts are 鈥渋nstinctively, institutionally pushed down to the artists,鈥� argued Soto. 鈥淭hat to me is a symptom of something that has existed for decades in Florida and in Miami.鈥�
While it might seem that the slashed arts grants are what spurred the timing of the Miami Artist Census coming to life, Soto said it 鈥渏ust so happens鈥� to coincide.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a long time coming,鈥� said Soto.
The artists census in L.A.
The Los Angeles Artist Census served as the inspiration for the Miami Artists Census. That census was spearheaded by artist Tatiana Vahan, who is herself a Miami native.
News that cultural institutions were raising hundreds of millions of dollars for building upgrades and expansions in Los Angeles left a rotten taste in her mouth. Money going toward the arts was great, but every artist she knew was struggling to pay rent. As the institutions thrive, the artists themselves were being left behind, she felt. She wanted to write an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times talking about the problem from an artist鈥檚 perspective.
Then, she hit a wall.
鈥淚 was looking for quantitative data to help paint the picture of what artists experience in LA and I couldn't find any. I couldn't find the data I wanted to find about artists in the United States, in general,鈥� Vahan told WLRN. 鈥淒ata these days is a building block for infrastructure. It informs funding. It informs policy. And without having data ... for funders, it's like throwing money into a dark room. And so that's how the LA Artist Census came around. It was to fill a void or a gap in this information.鈥�
The Los Angeles Artist Census was launched in February of 2020, just a few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. Vahan was glad that the project launched when it did, because it captured the economic realities of the pre-COVID world. In 2022, she finally , and with a small grant, was able to print 2,000 copies of the final report, which were then distributed for free in LA art spaces.
鈥淚t revealed what we had suspected going into the research. Which is how precarious many artists鈥� lives are in Los Angeles,鈥� said Vahan. 鈥淲e found that half of the people who were employed had no employment benefits. Sixty-one percent had no paid sick days. Three- quarters had no paid time off. So these are like basic benefits.鈥�
A majority of respondents earned $5,000 or less from their artwork, meaning they primarily work other jobs for income. A separate question asked if the respondent had gone without basic necessities in the previous two years. Thirty percent of respondents said they had gone without basic necessities because of a lack of money.
鈥淭he most common basic necessities artists went without were healthcare and food, healthcare being number one,鈥� said Vahan.
Whereas she started the project looking for concrete numbers, now she had them. She hopes to do updates of the census whenever she can, and she imagines a world in which every major city does some version of it, to build a dataset on artists.
For Los Angeles, she suspects that having some hard numbers to lean on will pay dividends for years to come, since now artists looking for grants or funding now have data points to make the case for what they need.
鈥淎ll of this data together is sort of painting a picture,鈥� said Vahan. 鈥淭o me, I feel like this created a grounds from which to organize.鈥�
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