Research

September is Month of the Artist in Alberta. Alberta is the first and remains the only province in Canada to dedicate a month to artists. It is an annual celebration of artists, and the value they bring to the province, both socially and economically.

Results from the Government of Alberta’s Survey of Albertans show that Albertans value the arts and that arts activities make an impact on their communities.

In 2022-23, 70.3% of Albertans attended arts and culture activities and 54% participated in arts activities.

The survey also indicates that 76.3% of Albertans feel that arts and culture that arts and culture activities make their community a better place to live.

Activity and Event Attendance:

• 70.3% of Albertans attended arts and culture activities or events in the past 12 months.
• 61.7% of Albertans attended a live performance, including musical performances (45.1%), theatrical performances (35.2%), and dance performances (14.1%).
• 34.9% of Albertans attended a visual arts event, including visiting art galleries and studios (25.8%).
• 33% of Albertans attended an arts and culture festival or fair, including cultural performances and events (21.1%) and community arts (16.7%).

Activity and Training Participation

• 54% of Albertans participated in arts activities or training in the past 12 months.
• 36.9% of Albertans participated in the visual arts, including painting (16.3%), crafting (14.7%), and photography (14.3%).
• 24.9% participating in the performing arts, including singing (12.9%), playing a musical instrument (12.6%), and dancing (10.6%).

The Survey of Albertans is an annual survey on Albertans’ perceptions of various topics, including arts and culture.

Read the full report on the Government of Alberta’s website.

Published on the AFA website (AFA News) September 21, 2023

In December 2023, Hill Strategies Research Inc. released data on the profile of professional artists in Alberta in their Statistical Insights on the Arts series.

Based on the 2021 census, the post examines the number and incomes of artists in Alberta. The post also provides a brief summary of the situation of cultural workers in Alberta.

How many artists are in Alberta?

There are 18,100 artists in Alberta, representing 9% of the 202,900 professional artists in Canada.

Artists in Alberta represent 0.7% of the 2.4 million workers in the province. One in every 134 Alberta workers is an artist!

Working conditions and education

The post provides three measures of artists’ incomes: employment income, personal income, and household income.

• Employment income shows work-related earnings of artists. In 2020 the median employment income of Alberta artists was $10,700, about a quarter of the median employment income of all Alberta workers ($45,200).
• Personal income includes all sources of income. In 2020, the median personal income of Alberta artists was $28,000, 47% below that of all Alberta workers ($53,200).
• Household income provides a measure of the family situation of artists. In 2020 the median household income of Alberta artists was $100,000, 21% lower than that of all Alberta workers ($126,000).

The median, or midpoint, of the data is used as it provides a better indication of the typical situation of professional artists than the average. It should be noted that income statistics in the 2021 census relate to the 2020 calendar year.

• 72% of Alberta artists are self-employed, nearly five times higher than the percentage of all Alberta workers (16%).
• 40% of Alberta artists have a bachelor’s degree or higher, above the percentage of all Alberta workers (30%).

Demographics

• 62% of Alberta artists are women, higher than the proportions of all Alberta workers (47%).
• 35% of Alberta artists have a child at home, lower than the percentage of all Alberta workers (42%).
• 26% of Alberta artists are 55 years of age or older, somewhat higher than the proportion of all Alberta workers (23%).
• 6% of Alberta artists are Indigenous, equal to the proportion of all Alberta workers (6%).
• 17% of Alberta artists are members of racialized groups, below the percentage of all Alberta workers (27%).
• 18% of Alberta artists are immigrants to Canada, lower than the percentages of all Alberta workers (27%).
• 3.4% are French speakers, similar to the percentage of all Alberta workers (2.9%).
• About two-thirds of Alberta artists (65%) reside in the cities of Edmonton and Calgary. While 11% of Alberta artists reside in rural areas, 11% reside in areas with populations between 30,000 and 100,000, and 9% reside in areas with populations under 30,000 (but which are not considered rural).

Artists in Alberta by discipline

Of the 18,100 artists in Alberta, here is how they are broken down by discipline:

• Musicians and singers: 21%
• Photographers: 15%
• Artisans and craftspeople: 13%
• Painters, sculptors, and other visual artists: 12%
• Writers: 12%
• Producers, directors, choreographers, and related occupations: 10%
• Dancers: 8%
• Actors, comedians, and circus performers: 6%
• Other performers: 4%
• Conductors, composers, and arrangers: 1%

Cultural Workers in Alberta

There are 80,600 workers in arts, culture, and heritage occupations in Alberta, representing 3.3% of the province’s overall labour force. One in every 30 workers in Alberta has a cultural occupation.

In 2020, the median employment income of a cultural worker in Alberta was $37,600, 17% less than all Alberta workers ($45,200); the median personal income of a cultural worker in Alberta was $46,000, 14% less than all workers in the province ($53,200); and the median houseold income of a cultural worker in Alberta was $118,000, 6% less than all Alberta workers ($126,000).

To celebrate 25 years of the AFA, we’re taking a look back at how we came to be, favourite milestones, and some of the amazing artists we’ve encountered along the way. 

By Sarah Pocklington, former Indigenous Arts Development Consultant

In March 2005, the AFA initiated a three-phase consultation process to explore and understand the needs of Indigenous artists and arts organizations in Alberta. The first phase, completed in June 2005, focused on visiting Indigenous communities across the province to determine the needs of the communities in relation to arts funding. The second phase in October 2005 focused on secondary research and included interviews with service providers working with Aboriginal communities. The third and final phase focused on consulting and interviewing Indigenous artists and arts organizations throughout Alberta. The draft recommendations for phase three were completed in April 2006.

From this exploration, we arrived at the following key focus areas:

Outreach – building relationships and creating an Indigenous Outreach Strategy;

Capacity Building – Access to training and development opportunities related to grant writing, marketing, planning and communications for Indigenous artists and organizations;

Advocate – “Spreading the word” about Indigenous arts;

Support – allocating funding for amateur and professional Indigenous artists and arts organizations;

Networking – creating and supporting networking opportunities for Indigenous artists, organizations and service providers;

Continued Dialogue – Encourage and support dialogue with Indigenous communities through consultation and research processes, listening circles, events and conferences.

The AFA hired an Indigenous Outreach Worker on an eight-month contract as a part of the 2006-2007 AFA Action Plan. The plan introduced a pilot grant program for arts organizations, along with workshops targeted specifically to Indigenous artists with the goal of increasing awareness of AFA programming and encouraging applications. In 2006-2007 the AFA provided $95,205 to Indigenous arts organizations with $50,000 support from the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.

Today, the AFA has a full-time Indigenous Arts Development Consultant who oversees the Indigenous Arts Individual Project Grant Stream and coordinates the Alberta’s Future Leaders Program for First Nations and Metis communities across Alberta. In 2015-16 the AFA provided $143,056.98 in project funding for Indigenous project grants. (Indigenous artists can apply to any project grant funding opportunity; however this project grant program provides specific support to Inidgenous artists).

Recently, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action included the recommendation of a renewed strategy to promote the arts as a fundamental aspect of reconciliation.

There has also been a demonstrated response on behalf of provincial arts organizations to engage with Indigenous communities in new and expanding ways. Major institutions like the Art Gallery of Alberta have initiated programming as part of their ongoing mandates to include Indigenous artists and their practices.

The City of Edmonton 2016 Arts and Culture Hall of Fame video

Indigenous artists are also receiving greater public recognition for their talents. Recently, Cold Lake’s Alex Janvier was inducted into the City of Edmonton’s 2016 Arts and Culture Hall of Fame. He also received an Honorary Degree, Doctor of Fine Arts from the Ontario College of Art and Design and will be featured in a 2017 solo retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada (which you can read more about in our next blog post!). In 2015 the AFA was pleased to announce the award of a public art commission to Cree artist Brenda Draney for the new Centre for Arts and Culture at MacEwan University, set to be unveiled in 2017 in Edmonton.

Meeting the needs of supporting Indigenous artists, arts organizations and communities is a high priority for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Arts Branch and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The Government of Alberta is releasing public data and information to help citizens understand how government works. Some of these datasets and publications are already available, but Open Alberta brings it together in one searchable website. Making this data easily available means it will be easier for people to make decisions and suggestions about government policies based on detailed information.

The AFA receives funding from the Government of Alberta each year, and we distribute the majority of it back into our community as arts grants to individuals and organizations. Now, through the Open Data portal, you can access data from the 2015-16 fiscal year on AFA funding, such as:

• Funding recipients
• Funding amount by region
• Funding summary

Whether you’re an art enthusiast, contributor or a casual attendee, we hope that you’ll find our funding data interesting and useful. 

The 2016 General Social Survey (GSS), Canadians at Work and Home, is conducted by Statistics Canada to provide insights into the lifestyle behaviour of Canadians.

Providing information on diverse subjects such as Internet use, work-life balance, job satisfaction, leisure activities, and their potential interactions, this first analysis showcases a selection of the many topics examined in the 2016 survey.

Half of Canadians surveyed (50%) had spent time on creative pursuits, including:

• 18% undertook crafts such as needlework, scrapbooking, woodwork, metalwork and pottery
• 15% were involved in making music
• 13% participated in visual arts
• 11% were engaged in writing activities
• 9% participated in dance

Data from the 2016 GSS, Canadians at Work and Home, can be used to promote a better understanding of social and economic issues.

Download the full report (PDF).

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent public health safety guidelines shuttered arts and cultural initituations across Canada and around the world for months. Now, museums, galleries and theatres are slowly starting to reopen, but will people go back to these venues right away or will they take their time returning? 

Business / Arts, the National Arts Centre and Nanos Research have come together to gauge Canadians’ attitudes on returning to indoor and outdoor arts and culture events across Canada. Over 1,000 people were polled through the Arts Response Tracking Survey (ARTS). The results offer valuable insight for arts organizations across the country to help inform re-opening procedures and programming models. 

ARTS Key survey findings: 

For indoor cultural activities 

• 26 per cent or one in four indoor culture-goers will attend as soon as institutions are open and following public health guidelines
• 38 per cent of indoor culture-goers will wait 5.2 months on average
• 35 per cent of indoor culture-goers are unsure

For outdoor cultural activities the figures are more encouraging: 

• 39 per cent of outdoor culture-goers will attend immediately after institutions are open and following public health guidelines
• 30 per cent of outdoor culture-goers will wait an average of five months 
• 32 per cent of outdoor culture-goers are unsure. 

When asked specifically about returning to museums and galleries, attitudes are similar:

• 30 per cent of art gallery and museum culture-goers will return immediately after institutions are open and following public health guidelines
• 27 per cent of art gallery and museum culture-goers will wait an average of five months
• 42 per cent of art gallery and museum culture-goers are unsure 
• Here, Quebec culture-goers are outliers, with 44 percent saying they plan to attend in person immediately after businesses, government and cultural organizations are opened and following public guidelines. 

In all cases, for those willing to return immediately, the proper implementation of safety measures such as physical distancing (32 per cent for indoor performances, 47% for outdoor performances, and 45% for museums) and masks (27 per cent for indoor performances, 25% for outdoor performances, and 24% for museums ) are needed to ensure comfort.

For culture-goers who will wait to attend, a vaccine is more frequently mentioned as a precaution needed to make them feel comfortable attending in person events. 

Encouraging and of note is that in the short term, Canadian culture-goers are embracing digital as an alternative for the lack of in-person cultural experiences. 

• 50 percent or one in two culture-goers have reported having watched a digital arts event or culture performance online or taken a virtual tour of a museum since the Covid-19 outbreak. 
• And, just over one in ten culture-goers (13 per cent of outdoor and indoor culture goers, 14 per cent of museum culture-goers) say they are willing to pay 50 percent of a full ticket price to watch the same performance digitally online that they would currently attend in person. 

While it certainly doesn’t replace the in-person experience, these findings reveal a possible new revenue and audience building resource for Canada’s cultural organizations. 

Read the full survey on the Business / Arts website. 

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts is pleased to be a funding partner in this collaboration with Stone-Olafson and other community leaders to develop a long-term research investigation and evaluate how current conditions will reshape Albertans’ attitudes and behaviours towards social and group activities, across a variety of sectors. The purpose of this work is to give leaders of community sports, recreation, arts and culture, professional sports, active living, heritage, tourism or hospitality sectors relevant facts about local audiences that they will need to bring life back to our communities.

The initiative is being funded by: 

• ActiveCITY Collective
• Alberta Foundation for the Arts 
• Angus Reid
• ATB
• Calgary Arts Development 
• Calgary Foundation
• Edmonton Arts Council
• Edmonton Community Foundation
• Rozsa Foundation
• Stone-Olafson
• Travel Alberta

​This research is being conducted in six waves over the course of the next year. This is a community resource that is FREE to access and results from the second wave of research are now available. The second wave of research builds on the baseline established in May and June by delving into attitudes on comfort, spending, the impact of media, and audience expectations.

Findings and implications for Alberta organizations through Wave 2 results include:

• Support for the pace of re-opening grows but there are still lingering pockets of disagreement.
• Comfort levels are creating a new baseline of engagement.
• Increasing gaps are appearing between audience segments on the pandemic.
• As restrictions lift, Albertans are pulled by their social motivations and perceptions of safety outdoors.
• Engagement is (potentially) perishable.
• Staying connected will mean the development of innovative and hybrid experiences.
• In a crowded media space, audiences are still listening.
• Spending is obviously being impacted

The report makes the following recommendations for organizations:

• Comfort levels are not rebounding just because restrictions are lifting. Organizations need to temper expectations about reconnecting with audiences. You will not be reengaging them in the same you used to. It will take time and it will look different. Plan on it and prepare.
• Getting audiences comfortable enough to attend is vital. Some of this will rebound over time, and some will be addressed by government, but there are opportunities to build confidence in what you are doing to safeguard their health. Show the steps you are taking and the tools being employed to protect audiences. Building confidence with what you are doing will help increase comfort and, in turn, consideration.
• Audiences and markets are changing. There are new barriers to address and consider. Organizations will need to understand shifting mindsets of different target audiences in order to engage effectively. This could be a deep opportunity to engage for many organizations who can capitalize on their motivations and expectations.
• Find your voice. Audiences are listening closely for news around the pandemic and are eager for updates, information or promotions. They want to know when experiences will be available again and are receptive to traditional marketing messages again. In fact, they expect it.
• Adapting means developing new product and experiences to consume. Staying put or offering what you used to won’t necessarily work. Organizations that can move into hybrid offers (not simply digital alone or in-person alone) that still leverage intrinsic motivations will be well positioned to protect their revenue from competition.

Download the reports:

• Alberta Report
• Calgary Report
• Edmonton Report

You can subscribe to receive notifications when the new reports are available by visiting stone-olafson.com. 

This research is being conducted in six waves over the course of the next year. This is a community resource that is FREE to access and results from the fourth wave of research are now available. 

Findings for Alberta organizations from Wave 4 results include:

• Public perceptions reflect the low point of the pandemic at this time.
• Albertans are adapting to and following the rules.
• Change in habits during the pandemic appears to be additive, not alternative
• Contexts frame marketing in this environment - messages will need to be shifted, media strategies evaluated, and some types of voices changed.
• Engagement is on hold.
• Travel within the province is an option. 

What are the implications for Alberta organizations?

• When conditions permit, recognize you will be reconnecting with a weary population who are more anxious than before. Messages and offers will need to adjust to reflect this reality.
• As Albertans accept and get used to the restrictions, they expect others to follow them too. A large percentage of those surveyed indicate others not following protocols will dissuade them from attending events/participating in activities. The same applies for not seeing sufficient safeguards in place.
• As restrictions start to lift, Albertans are likely to start figuring out how to balance a new set of activities they enjoy with their usual activities they want to get back to. And for organizations, that means breaking through a larger competitive set to capture the attention of their audiences. For those that offer registered or directed experiences this may be an even bigger challenge now that people are also adding in more self-directed experiences.
• Organizations are likely going to need a multi-layered media strategy that can reach influencers who can help propel the message. To be clear, an influencer strategy doesn’t mean a pure social media strategy. It means a strategy of messages and media that are repeatable to others.
• Organizations have to be prepared to re-engage in stages. When current restrictions lift there will be some appetite to explore and potential opportunities to meet them online or outdoors. In a post-pandemic environment, audiences are very likely to get active again.
• Focusing on broad messages that reflect a drive to escape everyday stresses and deliver on social motivations will work well to help motivate intra-provincial travel. Reinforcing these main messages with reassurances about flexibility in booking and safety will also be helpful to finalize a decision.

Download the reports:

• Alberta Report
• Calgary Report 
• Edmonton Report

You can subscribe to receive notifications when the new reports are available by visiting stone-olafson.com. 

About the project

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts is pleased to be a funding partner in this collaboration with Stone-Olafson and other community leaders to develop a long-term research investigation and evaluate how current conditions will reshape Albertans’ attitudes and behaviours towards social and group activities, across a variety of sectors. The purpose of this work is to give leaders of community sports, recreation, arts and culture, professional sports, active living, heritage, tourism or hospitality sectors relevant facts about local audiences that they will need to bring life back to our communities.

The initiative is being funded by: 

• ActiveCITY Collective
• Alberta Foundation for the Arts 
• Angus Reid
• ATB
• Calgary Arts Development 
• Calgary Foundation
• Edmonton Arts Council
• Edmonton Community Foundation
• Rozsa Foundation
• Stone-Olafson
• Travel Alberta

We invite you to explore the 2017-18 AFA Annual Report, which includes our accomplishments during the last fiscal year, a summary of grants awarded, financial statements, and the AFA Board’s membership and responsibilities.

Message from the AFA Board of Directors

Message from the Chair

For more than 25 years, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA) has served as the Government of Alberta’s primary supporter of artists and arts organizations. Our support helps ensure that the arts continue to be an essential contributor to the quality of life of Albertans.

In 2017-18, funding for the AFA was increased by $5 million for a total of $31.6 million. This increase represents our government’s commitment to supporting Alberta’s arts community, in spite of economic challenges caused by the steep decline in oil prices.

In response, the AFA Board of Directors developed a budget to support greater access, excellence, and sustainability of the arts sector. Arts organizations received greater support to assist with the challenges from the economic downturn and individual artists and organizations seeking project funding were given a greater chance of receiving support. In result, the total number of grants we provided increased by 18 per cent from 2016-17 due to the increase to our budget allocation.

The AFA cares for the largest and most active provincial public art collection in Canada, valued at more than $16 million. We acquired 126 new artworks into the AFA Art Collection this year, helping us celebrate and preserve works by visual artists in Alberta. We are also committed to sharing our treasure of artworks with Albertans, with more than a quarter of our entire collection on display last year.

The AFA seeks to promote engagement with the arts across the province. We were thrilled to partner with Alberta Culture Days for its 10th anniversary, and to continue promoting access to the arts for youth in First Nations and Métis communities through our partnership with the Alberta’s Future Leaders program.

On behalf of the AFA Board of Directors, I am happy to share the results of a remarkable year of growth.

I am pleased to present the AFA 2017-18 Annual Report.

Liam Oddie, Chair
Alberta Foundation for the Arts

We invite you to read the 2022-2023 AFA Annual Report, which includes our accomplishments during the last fiscal year, a summary of grants awarded, financial statements, and the AFA Board’s membership and responsibilities.

Key highlights from the report:

The AFA’s funding priorities in 2022-23 were to continue to provide stable support for Alberta’s arts organizations and to maintain funding levels for programs that support individual artists.

• With the removal of public health measures in June 2022, the AFA managed increased funding demand in 2022-23 as the sector returned to pre-pandemic levels of arts activities.

The AFA continued to support equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) in the arts and through the arts.

• The 2022 cycle of the AFA’s Organization Activation Projects grant program focused on EDIA. In March 2023, the AFA approved more than $242,000 to support EDIA projects being undertaken in Alberta

In March 2023, the government appointed Paul R. Baay as Chair and four new board members: Le Bo (Vice Chair), Robert Fernandez, Sylvester Ndumbi, and Shana Yang.

Funding

Through its grant programs, the AFA administered $23.0 million to Alberta’s arts sector.

• The AFA provided 386 operating grants and 223 project grants to organizations totaling $19.5 million.
• The AFA provided 242 grants to artists working in a variety of artistic disciplines totaling $2.5 million.

Art collection

The AFA art collection acquired 106 new pieces: 44 purchases and 62 donations.

• Through the Art Acquisition by Application program, the AFA purchased 41 artworks by 32 artists, 9 of whom were not previously represented in the AFA Art Collection.

The AFA’s Travelling Exhibition (TREX) program visited 180 venues and saw 401,719 visitors.

Research and engagement

On September 2022, the AFA marked the 50th Anniversary of the AFA Art Collection by announcing the production of a video series that promotes the AFA’s Art Collection and the art and artists within Alberta.

• The AFA Art Collection is the largest, most active, and one of the oldest of 16 provincially owned art collections.

In October 2022, the AFA hosted engagement sessions to gather input and feedback from Alberta’s arts community that could be used to inform the AFA’s next three-year strategic plan.

In early 2023, the AFA was honoured to select 15 recipients from Alberta's arts community to receive Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medals.

• Two presentation ceremonies were held in Edmonton on January 30, 2023, and in Calgary on February 2, 2023, where the AFA presented the medals to the recipients.