Appendix I: Survey design and methodology · via mail, including a covering letter, summary questionnaire, showcards to be used during the interview, and a reply paid envelope for

95An economic study of professional artists in Australia

The Australia Council agreed in October 2008 to provide a research grant to Professor David Throsby to conduct the fifth artists’ survey.

Selection of the survey company and survey methodology

An invitation for tender to administer the survey fieldwork was sent to five survey companies. Two potential methodologies to conduct the survey were mentioned in the brief to the companies:

• CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviewing), in line with previous artists’ surveys

• online, via internet-based questionnaire.

After receiving the proposals from the five survey companies, a short list of three contenders was drawn up; these companies were invited to present and discuss their proposal. A final decision was made based on cost, clarity and relevance of the proposal, experience and reliability of the project team, and the quality of the interviewers to be used in the CATI survey. Based on these criteria, Newspoll was chosen as the successful bidder. National Field Services (NFS), a sister company of Newspoll, was the company that carried out the fieldwork from their Sydney-based call centre.

Although conducting the survey online would have had significant advantages in terms of organisational demand and cost, the CATI option was finally chosen as the survey methodology for three main reasons:

• the complex nature and substantial length of the questionnaire

• comparability with past artists’ surveys, since switching methodology might have potentially triggered different responses

• possible sample biases in an online survey, given that an unknown number of artists will not have access to the internet or will be unfamiliar with the usage of an online questionnaire.

Ethical aspects

The ethical aspects of this study were approved by the Macquarie University Ethics Review Committee (Human Research). Artists were informed that if they had any complaints or reservations about any ethical aspects of their participation in this research, they could contact the Ethics Review Committee.

Defining a practising professional artist

This study defines practising professional artists as people who are permanently living in Australia, and who either:

• have had an artistic achievement in their artform in the last five years (for details of what constitutes an artistic achievement for each artform see the recruitment questionnaire on the website of the Australia Council for the Arts), or

• have been engaged in the last five years in creating a serious and substantial body of work in their artform, or

• have undertaken full-time training in their artform, or

• have received a grant to work in their artform.

Chapter 1 of this report gives further details of issues raised in defining a practising professional artist.

Note that this survey does not include Indigenous artists living and working in remote communities, filmmakers or designers. The work practices of these artists are quite specific to their own location or professional occupation, and the questionnaire used in this survey would be inappropriate for them. These groups of artists need special purpose surveys tailored to their particular needs and circumstances.

Compiling the population lists of artists

Before the survey could get underway, it was necessary to compile lists of artists for each artform from which a sample to be interviewed could be randomly drawn. These lists also formed the basis on which we estimated the total artist population. Over 200 arts organisations around Australia were contacted and asked to cooperate with the researchers by providing contact details for their artist members, exclusively for the purpose of the survey. Difficulties encountered in compiling the population lists are discussed in Chapter 2.

Appendix I: Survey design and methodology

96 An economic study of professional artists in Australia


Below is a list of arts organisations that provided contact details for either their full list of members or sampled members:

Table 77: List of arts organisations whose members were included in the survey

In total, the final population list of artists contained 32,272 artists, compared with 23,927 in 2001, 35,316 in 1993 and 28,451 in 1988. The total of 32,272 artists in the list for the current survey includes members of arts organisations which only provided us with membership numbers and postcodes, so some double entries are therefore possible. Furthermore, some of the lists were partly outdated in that they contained people who have ceased to be artists. Any such people, if contacted, were screened out at the recruitment stage.

Random sampling and obtaining sufficient contact details

To be able to provide reliable results across PAOs, it was important to obtain a sufficient number of interviews for each artform. Target numbers of interviews were set for each artform in accordance with estimated population numbers, so that larger artists’ groups had a higher target rate than smaller groups. It was necessary, as in previous surveys, to merge some smaller groups of artists with bigger groups; thus directors were merged with actors, choreographers with dancers, and singers with musicians.

The following table outlines the useable sample as well as the target interviews set for each PAO.


Once the random sample was drawn, the arts organisations and artists’ agents that only provided us with limited information about their members for the purpose of sampling had to be re-contacted for full details of the artists that were selected in the sample. In total, there were 20 arts organisations and 26 agents that had to be re-contacted.

Out of these 46 organisations that were re-contacted for full details of their members, many still were reluctant to provide us with their members’ contact details in full. So to ensure maximal inclusion of artists, we developed alternative options that enabled the organisations to make first contact with the selected artist members rather than the survey company. The alternative options proposed to organisations were:

1. The standard option: Providing the survey company with full details of the artists selected for the survey.

2. The ‘opt out’ option: The organisation would send a customised letter to the selected artists, informing them of their selection for the artists’ survey and advising them that their contact details would be forwarded for the purpose of this survey, unless the artist contacted the organisation by a certain date to refuse participation.

3. An ‘opt in’ option: The organisation would send a customised letter to the artists selected in the sample, informing them about the survey and asking them to contact the survey company and register their interest in participation.

A further problem arose because several of the arts organisations could not provide all of the details of the artists’ full name, postal address and phone number. Some organisations only had phone numbers of their members, some only email addresses, some only postal addresses, and others had some combination of the above. We developed different approaches for dealing with these groups of artists where we only had parts of the required contact details. In total we developed six different scenarios, depending on the contact information available:

Table 79: Scenarios for contacting artists

Strategies for dealing with missing contact details included: using the email address instead of the postal address; ‘cold calling’ without a principal approach letter; developing another ‘opt in’ option that involved sending out a letter to artists via email or mail and encouraging them to contact the survey company; looking up missing contact details in the white pages.

After the pilot phase we decided to exclude Scenarios B and E, since the ‘opt in’ letters and emails evoked no response in the pilot survey, which left four scenarios, A, C, D and G for the main survey and reduced the useable sample to 28,993.

Development of the questionnaire

The questionnaire was designed by the researchers, with input from Newspoll and National Field Surveys. To facilitate comparability with previous surveys, the majority of questions were based on the questionnaire used in the artists’ survey 2002, with some occasional modifications. A few questions were dropped and some other questions were added. In particular, questions were added or changed in the following areas:

• artists’ use of their creative skills in industries outside the arts

• artists’ employment status and basis for receiving income

• artists’ usage of new technologies.

The final version of the questionnaire can be found on the website of the Australia Council for the Arts.

Table 78: Useable sample and number of target interviews (no.)



Conducting the interviews

Once the sample was drawn and all necessary contact details obtained, the survey was administered by the survey company. The conduct of the survey fieldwork involved several stages, identical for both pilot and main survey:

• A primary approach letter was sent to artists selected in the sample, explaining the purpose of the survey and encouraging participation. The letter was signed by the researchers but posted by the survey company in order to ensure that the identity of artists was not known to the researchers.

• After receiving the principal approach letter, artists were contacted for a short recruitment interview via phone which took on average 6.5 minutes. If the respondent was interested in the survey and available to proceed, screening questions were asked to assess whether the respondent qualified as a professional practising artist. The interviewer also asked for a suitable time to conduct the main interview.

• All recruited artists were sent a ‘survey pack’ via mail, including a covering letter, summary questionnaire, showcards to be used during the interview, and a reply paid envelope for the income and expenditure section, in case artists preferred to complete it themselves rather than on the phone during the interview.

• The main interviews were conducted using CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviewing) at a time agreed with the respondent. The average length of an interview was 44 minutes.

• For any artist who chose to send in the income and expenditure section by mail, the survey company matched the income and expenditure section on receipt with that individual’s interview data.

The artists’ survey questionnaire is to a large extent a well-tested instrument, so the main purposes of the pilot study were to ascertain response rates and to test questions that were changed or added as compared to the questionnaire from the artists’ survey 2002.

The pilot survey was conducted between 29 July and 21 September 2009. The pilot clearly showed that ‘opting in’ is not a feasible option with regard to the artists’ survey. In fact, out of hundreds of potential artists (counting the arts organisations that sent out an ‘opt in’ letter to their artists as well as the artists who were classified ‘opt in’ by the survey company), not a single artist had opted in. For that reason we decided to draw the sample for the main survey only from artists whose contact details did at least include a phone number. As noted above, artists for whom we only had postal address or email (or both) were not included in the main survey sampling.

A pilot debrief meeting was held between the survey company and the Macquarie University research team on 24 September 2009 at the interview facilities in Mascot, Sydney.

Based on the results of the pilot survey, some additions were made to answering categories and changes were made to some questions.

The main survey was conducted between 8 October and 16 December 2009.

Table 80 shows the number of artists randomly sampled, the number of artists recruited and the number of interviews achieved in the pilot and the main survey.

Table 80: Number of artists sampled, recruited and interviewed (no.)


Table 81: Numbers of artists by artform and state/territory that were used for analysis in this report (no.)

Table 81 shows the numbers of interviews achieved by PAO and state/territory that were used for analysis in this report:

Finally, it goes without saying that this research project would not have been possible without the willing and enthusiastic cooperation of the

organisations and artists who gave up their time to participate. As already stated in the acknowledgements, we express our deep gratitude to all these organisations and individuals for their significant contribution to advancing the cause of the arts in Australia.


Appendix Tables: Basic demographics

Appendix II Table 1: Age distribution of Australian artists (percent)

Appendix II Table 2: Birthplace of Australian artists (percent)

Appendix II: Detailed data tables


Appendix II Table 3: Family circumstances of Australian artists (percent)

Appendix II Table 4: Geographic location of Australian artists (percent)

Appendix Tables: Training and education

Appendix II Table 5: Artists’ highest level of general education (percent)



Appendix II Table 6: Types of training ever undertaken to become a PAO (a) (percent)


Appendix II Table 7: Artists’ most important training to become a PAO (percent)


Appendix II Table 8: Artists still engaged in training (percent)



Appendix Tables: Career progression

Appendix II Table 9: Artists age at moment of establishment (a) (percent)

Appendix II Table 10: Point in time of artists’ first income (percent)


Appendix II Table 11: Most important factor advancing artists’ professional development at present time (percent)



Appendix II Table 12: Most important factor advancing artists’ professional development throughout career (percent)


Appendix II Table 13: Most important factor inhibiting artists’ professional development at present time (percent)



Appendix II Table 14: Most important factor inhibiting artists’ professional development throughout career (percent)


Appendix Tables: The multi-talented artist

Appendix II Table 15: Achievements of Australian artists – writing (a) (percent)



Appendix II Table 16: Achievements of Australian artists – visual arts (a) (percent)


Appendix II Table 17: Achievements of Australian artists – craft (a) (percent)



Appendix II Table 18: Achievements of Australian artists – directing (a) (percent)



Appendix II Table 19: Achievements of Australian artists – acting (a) (percent)


Appendix II Table 20: Achievements of Australian artists – dancing (a) (percent)


Appendix II Table 21: Achievements of Australian artists – choreography (a) (percent)



Appendix II Table 22: Achievements of Australian artists – instrumental music (a) (percent)


Appendix II Table 23: Achievements of Australian artists – singing (a) (percent)



Appendix II Table 24: Achievements of Australian artists – composing (a) (percent)



Appendix II Table 25: Achievements of Australian artists – community cultural development (a) (percent)


Appendix Tables: Patterns of working time

Appendix II Table 26: Proportion of working time allocated to principal artistic occupation in the financial year 2007/08 (percent)

Appendix II Table 27: Proportion of working time allocated to all arts work in the financial year 2007/08 (percent)


Appendix II Table 28: Distribution of artists by hours worked per week on principal artistic occupation in October 2009 (percent)

Appendix II Table 29: Distribution of artists by hours worked per week on all arts work (PAO and arts-related) in October 2009 (percent)



Appendix II Table 30: Distribution of artists by hours worked per week on all work (PAO, arts-related and non-arts) (percent)

Appendix II Table 31: Types of arts-related work undertaken by artists (a) (percent)


Appendix Tables: Income and expenditure

Appendix II Table 32: Distribution of income from creative work (percent)



Appendix II Table 33: Distribution of income from all arts work (percent)


Appendix II Table 34: Distribution of income from all types of work (percent)



Appendix II Table 35: Components of expenditure incurred for creative practice (a) (percent)Appendix

Appendix II Table 36: Sources of creative income (a) (percent)


Appendix Tables: Employment and social security

Appendix II Table 37: Employment status in principal artistic occupation in the financial year 2007/08 (percent)



Appendix II Table 38: Employment status in arts-related work in the financial year 2007/08 (percent)


Appendix II Table 39: Employment status in non-arts occupation in the financial year 2007/08 (percent)



Appendix Tables: Professional practice issues

Appendix II Table 40: Promotion of work by an agent, manager or dealer and satisfaction with level of service (a) (percent)


Appendix II Table 41: Most active promoter of work and satisfaction with promotional arrangements (a) (percent)

Appendix II Table 42: Artists’ suggestions for improvement of promotion (a) (percent)



Appendix II Table 43: Likelihood of artists improving their business skills within the next 12 months (a) (percent)

Appendix II Table 44: Artists’ belief of copyright ownership over produced work (including performance) (percent)



Appendix II Table 45: Artists’ membership in copyright collecting societies (a) (percent)

Appendix II Table 46: Infringement of copyright in creative work (percent)


Appendix II Table 47: Adequacy of protection of artists’ copyrights (percent)

Appendix II Table 48: Artists’ experience of infringement of their moral rights (a) (percent)

Appendix II Table 49: Adequacy of protection against moral rights infringements (percent)


Appendix II Table 50: Insurance cover in PAO during the financial year 2007/08 (a) (percent)

Appendix II Table 51: Sources of financial assistance artists applied for between 2004 and 2009 (percent)



Appendix II Table 52: Sources of financial assistance received by artists between 2004 and 2009 (a) (percent)

Appendix II Table 53: Effects of financial assistance on creative practice (a) (percent)


Appendix II Table 54: Most important effect of financial assistance on creative practice (a) (percent)

Appendix II Table 55: Most important purpose for financial assistance to individual artists (percent)



Appendix Tables: Usage of new technologies and the internet

Appendix II Table 56: Artists’ usage of new technologies for any purpose connected with creative work (percent)



Appendix II Table 56: Artists’ usage of new technologies for any purpose connected with creative work (percent) – continued


Appendix II Table 57: Artists’ usage of technologies in the process of creating art (percent)


Appendix II Table 57: Artists’ usage of technologies in the process of creating art (percent) – continued



Appendix II Table 58: Artists’ usage of the internet for different purposes (percent)

www.australiacouncil.gov.au/artistcareers

Documents

Appendix I: Survey design and methodology · via mail, including a covering letter, summary questionnaire, showcards to be used during the interview, and a reply paid envelope for