Arts Research Monitor: Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Arts

The new issue of Hill Strategies Research’s Arts Research Monitor investigates the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the arts and culture sector, based on four Canadian sources.

National Arts and Culture Impact Survey: Individual Report
Published by a consortium of 30 arts service organizations, January 2021

Conducted in November of 2020, this survey received responses from 1,273 artists and arts workers across Canada. The survey finds that 71% of respondents were working less in the arts and culture sector in November than before the COVID-19 pandemic, including 12% who are no longer working in the sector.

National Arts and Culture Impact Survey: Organizations Report
Published by a consortium of 30 arts service organizations, January 2021 

This Canadian survey received responses from 728 arts organizations in November of 2020. There has been a major increase in stress and anxiety levels during the pandemic: 31% of organizational respondents reported very high levels of stress and anxiety in November of 2020, compared with just 3% before the pandemic.

2020: The Year One in Four Arts Workers Lost Their Jobs
CAPACOA, January 15, 2021 

This web article, based on data from Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey, defines “arts workers” as workers in “arts, entertainment, and recreation industries”. There were 336,100 workers in arts, entertainment, and recreation industries in 2020, a figure that is 25% below the 2019 level (450,500).

Survey: Financial and professional situation of Quebec musicians
La Guilde des musiciens et musiciennes du Québec, October 2020 

This survey received responses from 755 professional musicians in Quebec in October of 2020. At the time of the survey, a large majority of respondents (72%) indicated that they were only able to undertake less than 25% of their usual work at the time. This includes the 31% of respondents who were unable to undertake any of their usual work.