Centering artist voices: notes from a survey of artists and cultural workers in Philadelphia, PA, and Richmond, VA

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay explores our work collecting artist experiences and attending to the voices of artists themselves in two US cities. Prompted by an earlier phase of focus group research in Philadelphia with artists who voiced their needs as workers, we undertook a survey of working artists in Philadelphia and Richmond, Virginia. This survey research asks about the spatial patterns of artists living, working, and presentation locations and how that geography has changed over time, as well as how artists have weathered the pandemic in two cities. We believe this study makes innovative contributions from a methodological standpoint, given the questions we asked that supported a spatial analysis of where artists live, work, and present their work. It is also an engaged process where we centered long-neglected voices through focus groups and surveys. It is an exploration of how artists engage with space and time.