New Reports: We Are Bound

Submitted by Jaime Sharp on September 20, 2022

From Yancey Consulting: "This is the story of Artist Relief 2020. It was an INCREDIBLE initiative.

9 months
161,000 applications
$21 million raised
3,916 artists funded
$5,000 each
100s of practitioners, administrators, artists, individual donors, and institutional funders mobilized

Take in the story. And then take in the recommendations and qualitative and quantitative reports. After doing so, let me know what you think and what we can do about crisis preparedness and resolving economic disparities."

1. We Are Bound: Excavating the Story of Artist Relief 2020

In 2020, nearly 4,000 artists in dire financial straits received $5,000 each in relief grants from a coalition of seven U.S. funders. These funders came together and launched a $21 million relief fund for artists during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

You can access the digital flipbook here.

2. We Are Bound: RECOMMENDATIONS

We Are Bound:RECOMMENDATIONS. As a population, independent artists were devastated by COVID 2020. In the United States, the pandemic laid bare the minuscule and brittle securities that artists, makers, gig workers, freelancers, and other self-employed creators had in the form of financial reserves and social safety nets. As a companion piece to the We Are Bound: Excavating the Story of Artist Relief 2020, Lisa Yancey drafted this comprehensive set of recommendations in WE ARE BOUND: RECOMMENDATIONS, which addresses crisis preparedness and the systemic problem of economic disparities for artists in the creative economy.

You can access the digital flipbook here.

3. We Are Bound: Report on Qualitative Analysis of Artist Relief Application Narratives (Cycles 1-9)

Produced by Collaborative Consulting Group (CCG), this report set out to capture the story of artists and creatives who sought funding from the Artist Relief grant initiative. CCG managed and analyzed a representative sample of more than 1,300 Artist Relief grant applicant narratives.

You can access the digital flipbook here.

4. So Far Past the Brink: COVID-19 and the Ongoing Conditions that keep Creative Workers in Free Fall

Produced by Americans for the Arts, this report provides a quantitative analysis of aggregated results from a national online survey of just over 33,000 artists and creative workers from April through November 2020. It examines five sector-wide socioeconomic inequities exacerbated and exposed by the pandemic: economic insecurity, job insecurity, exploitative working conditions, inequities in the digital environment, limited access to health care, and housing and food insecurity.

You can access the digital flipbook here. It’s downloadable.