Arts, culture, arts education, and creativity are major contributors to New Yorkers’ quality of life, and the arts and culture sector is an important part of New York City’s local economy. This pilot study was undertaken by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs to better understand the demographic makeup of a sample of organizations in this sector. This information will be a key tool to help ensure that every resident of New York City has access to all opportunities offered by the arts and culture sector.

The SMU DataArts Workforce Demographics pilot study collected data from individuals who work or volunteer for a group of 65 DCLA-funded organizations, surveying five demographic characteristics: 1) Heritage (race, ethnicity, and nation of origin); 2) Age; 3) Gender; 4) Sexual Orientation, and 5) Disability. Of the 65 DCLA-funded organizations that participated in this pilot study, 32 were Cultural Development Fund (CDF) grantees and 33 were members of the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG). As a frame of reference, the 32 CDF organizations represent 3% of all organizations supported by the Cultural Data Fund. For purposes of analysis, charts are shown in aggregate to include data from all 65 organizations.

The New York City workforce demographics pilot study began on August 7th and closed on October 2nd, 2018. SMU DataArts received responses from 6,928 individuals representing 7,006 affiliations at 65 arts and cultural organizations in New York City. These responses constituted a 26.3% response rate when compared to the total workforce size of the participating organizations. Note that there are more affiliations than individuals due to the fact that an individual could affiliate with more than one organization (e.g. being a board member of one organization and a volunteer at another).

This pilot workforce demographics study provides a baseline of demographic data for 65 arts and culture organizations in New York City. The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and SMU DataArts are planning a follow-up study to commence in Fall 2020 that will include more organizations and allow for comparisons over time for organizations participating in both studies. Specifically, this will include organizations in the Cultural Institutions Group as all 33 were surveyed for this study and will be surveyed again in the next iteration.

• With respect to race/Hispanic origin, the respondent arts workforce is less diverse than New York City’s population. Whites represent 66%, compared to their 32% share of the city’s population. In contrast, Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians are underrepresented – 10% of cultural workers identify as African American, compared to 22% of the city’s population; 11% identify as Hispanic, compared to 29% of city residents; and 6% identify as Asian, compared to 14% of city residents.

• Respondents selecting the role “Community Engagement” most closely match the racial makeup of New York City as a whole. Service personnel such as Security, Retail/Merchandise, and Facilities are predominantly people of color, while Boards and Executive Leadership are 70% and 68% White (non-Hispanic), respectively.

• The age distribution of respondents closely matches that of the population of individuals aged 15 or older in New York City.

• In terms of gender, the overall arts workforce in this study is disproportionately female (65%) when compared to the general population of New York City (52% female), with males accounting for 31% and those identifying as transgender/gender non-conforming at under 1%. Board and Executive Leadership roles are 50% and 51% female, respectively.

• A large share (15%) of the arts workforce in this study identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or queer. The role of Executive Leadership had the second-largest response rate for gay, lesbian, bisexual, or queer at 26%. Only Technical/Production had a larger share at 27%.

• Eight percent of the arts and culture workforce in this pilot study reported having a disability, compared to 4% of all employed New York City residents and 11% of all New York City residents.

• 11% of respondents selected “I Decline to State/No Response” for disability and sexual orientation questions, while fewer than 5% of respondents selected “I Decline to State/No Response” for gender, age, or race questions.