The Arts Ecology of Saskatchewan 2023 – Views of Artists & General Public
In 2014, the Saskatchewan Partnership for Arts Research, a research partnership formed in 2012 by the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance, the Saskatchewan Arts Board (SK Arts), SaskCulture, and the University of Regina, conducted two major surveys to broaden its understanding of Saskatchewan’s arts ecology.
The two surveys, “Understanding the Arts Ecology of Saskatchewan from the Artist’s Point of View: A Survey of Saskatchewan Artists, May 2014” and “Understanding the Arts Ecology of Saskatchewan from the Grassroots: A Survey of the Saskatchewan Public, May 2014” were circulated in May 2014. The surveys were disseminated to the SAA’s Artist Registry and through partner organizations’ communications and outreach, social media and various media outlets.
These surveys and accompanying reports have been foundational research into Saskatchewan’s arts ecology. They contain data on which the SAA has consistently relied and referenced in its advocacy efforts.
Much has changed both globally and within Saskatchewan locally in the past decade, including the unprecedented global COVID-19 pandemic. The SAA, therefore, felt that it was crucially important to conduct a follow-up survey to examine how Saskatchewan’s arts ecology had changed in the past ten years.
In order to best facilitate comparison, the SAA maintained the original survey as closely as we were able: questions accounting for the effects of COVID-19 and some minor edits to language were made to elicit the best results and facilitate ease of understanding.
The SAA also chose to conduct four parallel surveys to reach the broadest range of people: two identical surveys were created for both the artist and general public surveys, respectively. One version of the artist survey was strictly limited to those who are members of the artist registry hosted and curated by the SAA, while the other was promoted more broadly, via email and social media communications, to anyone who identifies as an artist.
Additionally, the SAA partnered with Insightrix, the Saskatoon-based research company, to distribute the general public survey to a wider cross-section of the public: the SAA wanted to ensure that the responses received were truly reflective of the general public’s attitude towards the arts, and not isolated to those with whom the SAA is already connected, as those persons are likely already more inclined towards the arts.
The results of both surveys have been separated into two separate reports. You can view both of the full reports below:
The Arts Ecology of Saskatchewan – General Public – 2023
The Arts Ecology of Saskatchewan – The Views of Artists in the Province – 2023
2023-24 Breakout Reports
