Research

In February 2009, an ad hoc volunteer task force, spearheaded by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA), the Fund for Folk Culture (FFC), and the National Council for the Traditional Arts, was formed to develop a survey for the folk and traditional arts field about the impact of the recession.  Staff from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, the Washington State Commission on the Arts Folk & Traditional Arts Program, the Western Folklife Center and independent folklorist Pat Jasper offered additional input as the survey developed.  Surale Phillips (Decision Support Partners) and Jerry Yoshitomi (MeaningMatters, LLC) assisted the group in survey design, data processing, tabulation and interpretation of results.  The survey was distributed online for a time limited time in early-2009.  The survey represents the experiences of a broad cross-section of people and organizations involved in the folk and traditional arts at a challenging moment in time.  It provides a view of how people and organizations are faring and how they are impacted by the current economic recession.

The Alliance for California Traditional Arts invites you to participate in Leveraging Investments in Creativity’s (LINC’s) current survey, Artists and the Economic Recession, which will provide important data about the economic recessions’ impact on artists. Even if you’ve taken other surveys this year (and there have been many!), please take the time to participate.  ACTA is working with LINC to tabulate comparative data that will reveal changes between ACTA and the Fund for Folk Culture's February 2009 survey data and the current LINC results. Thank you!

In 2006, the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, in partnership with the Oregon Folklife Program of the Oregon Historical Society and with consultants Surale Phillips and Darcy Minter, conducted a survey of state apprenticeship programs across the nation.  A summary of the results are available for download.