Data => Stories? Arts, culture & heritage in Manitoba

Summary of my presentation in Winnipeg on October 9

For a presentation in Winnipeg for Manitobans for the Arts, I pulled together my existing statistics and created a few new graphs about the arts, culture, and heritage in Manitoba. Using the data as a jumping-off point, attendees worked to unearth stories about the situation of the arts in the province. The presentation also briefly covered information sources, data gaps, custom surveys, and question design.

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The key data from each section of the presentation are listed below, while the full presentation is available here in pdf form (7.5 MB).

Environmental and other organizational data

• Manitoba organizations’ commitment to net zero is around the national average

• More Manitoba organizations are “considering” a net zero commitment than the national average

• Inflation is (still) a major challenge for cultural organizations in the province

Economic data

• Significant decreases in core cultural GDP, both recently and longer-term (adjusted for inflation and population)

• Core cultural GDP is below the national average, but higher than any province other than the 3 largest ones

• Government spending on culture per capita (by the province & municipalities) is slightly above the national average

• However: slight reduction over the past 15 years (adjusted for inflation and population)

• Consumer spending on culture is high as % of total spending

• Consumer spending on arts items is similar to other provinces as % of total spending

Cultural workers

• Lower concentration of cultural workers than the national average

• Similar concentration in Winnipeg as other Prairie cities

• Not much change in cultural jobs over the last 13 years, unlike many other provinces

• Wages are lower for professional and technical cultural workers than professional and technical workers in other industries in Manitoba

• Financial stress, unaffordable housing, and unpaid work are common among cultural workers

Artists

• Lower concentration of artists than the national average

• Similar concentration in Winnipeg as other Prairie cities

• Indigenous artists make up a larger proportion of Manitoba artists than any other province

• Artists’ incomes are 42% lower than all Manitoba workers

• Difference is 39% across Canada

• Other challenges: grants, sales, artistic spaces

• Low incomes and other challenges lead to financial stress and unaffordable housing

Equity

• Income statistics are depressingly clear:

  • Indigenous artists’ $ earnings < non-Indigenous artists $ < Indigenous cultural workers $ < non-Indigenous cultural workers $

  • Women artists $ < men artists $ < women cultural workers $ < men cultural workers $

Other topics

During the presentation, we also discussed:

• Sources of provincial information on the arts, culture, and heritage

• Data gaps, including arts education, arts participation, international comparisons, and other environmental data

• Custom surveys and question design, including sample questions from a survey of theatre audiences