Rethinking Calgary’s Creative Economy
Calgary consistently ranks highly on the global livability index. In 2019 it was named the “Fifth most livable city in North America”. (Calgary Economic Development, 2019) Despite this, A significant portion of Calgary’s arts professionals no longer want to live in Calgary. (Calgary Arts Development, 2021)
Is there a problem, and can we use Design Thinking to explore it?
Ideally, to take a human-centred approach we would use direct observation and research to inform our process. This gives us more understanding to what our end user or audience really wants and needs because we get unexpected insights from examining people’s behaviour. For this purpose I’ll be using survey results from Calgary arts and economic organizations.
To define the problem and better understand the situation, I used the What’s your problem worksheet below:
The situation is based on responses to Calgary Arts Development’s 2020 Arts Professionals Survey that indicate:
The number of practicing arts professionals who agree that Calgary is a good place to be an artist has dropped from 57% in 2017 to 30% in 2020.
24% of arts professionals are anticipating moving away from Calgary in the next two years.
An earlier survey by Sustainable Calgary indicates a drop of 14% in people attending arts events from 2017 to 2018, which leads me to think that there may have been other factors needing improvement in Calgary’s arts industry prior to the pandemic. (Sustainable Calgary, 2021)
Calgary is home to 100+ art and music festivals that happen year-round as well as a number of performing arts centres including Western Canada’s largest: Arts Commons. There are multiple options for post-secondary arts education including the Mount Royal Conservatory, and Alberta University of the Arts. There are multiple publicly funded and privately funded arts exhibition spaces, as well as large museums like the National Music Centre and the Glenbow. All of this contributes to a robust arts community. (White, 2022)
Calgary is also in the midst of an economic downturn and–like the rest of the world–we are slowly recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic which lead to the cancellation of most arts and culture events over the last two years.
To try and define the problem further I’ve used Development Impact & You (DIY)’s Problem Definition template:
The key issue that I’ve identified from the previous worksheet is that despite a significant amount of investment in the city’s arts industry, the desire among arts professionals to leave Calgary is increasingly high.
Who is it a problem for?
The potential to lose a significant portion of our arts community affects more than just the artists living and working in Calgary. It directly impacts:
- arts organizations, galleries, music venues, theatres and other exhibition spaces
- educational institutions
- visiting/touring artists, and
- the tourism industry in Calgary and Alberta
Societal/Cultural factors that shape this problem
COVID-19
Perhaps the most obvious influence is from COVID-19. According to Calgary Arts Development:
The arts have been the hardest hit industry and likely the last to recover. Clearly the pandemic has impacted artists’ ability to earn a living, their ability to create art, their ability to present their creations, and their perceptions of Calgary.
The 2020 COVID-19 Impact Survey found:
- Calgary arts and culture organizations had to cancel 6,339 events,
- with an anticipated $20.6M+ in losses,
- and experienced a 54% drop in attendees from 2019
Because of this cancelled programming, there was a significant reduction in the amount of artists hired. Between March 15 and August 31, 2020 that number was 84%. (Calgary Arts Development, 2020)
Financial Poverty or Time Poverty?
A majority of artists in Calgary are self-employed or work on a contract basis, and much of this work was cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the nature of contract work it was also difficult for many to provide the correct qualifications to receive CERB and CRB. (Calgary Arts Development, 2020)
Prior to the pandemic, an overwhelming majority of arts professionals have difficulty finding work in the arts sector. (Calgary Arts Development, 2021) Over half of the artists in Calgary have a ‘day job’ to support themselves and their practice. In the music industry specifically only 13% of musicians have no other job besides music. (West Anthem, 2020) Many do not sustain a living as a full-time artist, and a lot of those who do live very close to the poverty line. (Gonzalez, 2021) Having to commit 30–40 hours a week to another job does not leave much time to create.
Most arts professionals only reported one to four hours of creation time per day. Over half (56%) of arts professionals reported a lack of time available for creative reflection or incubation and 62% reported that they needed more time to create.
(Calgary Arts Development, 2021)
A result of balancing multiple jobs is an unhealthy work-life balance with little time to rest and little energy to devote to a creative practice.
Lack of funding
Grants are “vital” to the arts industry, but the majority of arts professionals say that the number of grants and awards that are available are not sufficient. (Gonzalez, 2021) They are also not very optimistic about financial support opportunities in the near future, with the general feeling that the amount of financial support available will continue to decrease. Applying for grants can be a very time-consuming process, and having the education to understand grants as a business practice can be expensive.
Artists are not provided with enough opportunity to learn about career management and modern business practices for the arts. As a result, artists and music managers feel like musicians are not able to maximize the use of grants. (West Anthem, 2020)
Lack of Space
In their Music Ecosystem Study, West Anthem reported only 17 rehearsal spaces in Calgary–a city of over one million people that hosts over 70 live music festivals, in a province with almost 500 live music venues. The availability of affordable rehearsal and work spaces scores very poorly in Calgary. (West Anthem, 2020)
Access to adequate space for arts professionals has been an issue that predates the pandemic, with most arts professionals saying that the space they use to create is either too small, or too difficult to secure long-term. (Calgary Arts Development, 2021)
What evidence do you have that this is worth the investment?
Beyond a certain level of material well-being, quality of life and happiness are less likely to be linked to higher income than to intangibles such as the enjoyment derived from creating and participating in the arts. (Sustainable Calgary, 2021)
According to the Calgary Foundation Vital Signs publication, most Calgarians feel strongly that the arts are important and that having a strong arts community is the key to creating a vibrant city. (Calgary Foundation, 2021)
A 2016 Calgary Arts Development Survey found:
- 92% of Calgarians engage in the arts in some way
- 86% believe that the arts help bring people together
Calgarians spent $125 million on the arts in 2018. (Sustainable Calgary, 2021) Calgary Arts development lists the following as a significant economic contribution from Calgary’s collective arts operations:
- $134 million annually in value-added or GDP impacts to Canada
- an estimated 1,550 full-time or equivalent jobs
- significant returns from taxes and revenues to the government from ongoing operational expenditures spending. (Calgary Arts Development, 2018)
Can you think of this problem in a different way? Can you reframe it?
Before reframing the problem I wanted to put together an illustration of how the “end users”–arts professionals–are thinking and feeling. I created an empathy map using anecdotal evidence (green), inferences made from Calgary Arts Development 2020 Arts Professionals Survey data (white), and artist quotes from the LiveWire article The arts vision for Calgary’s Downtown and the need to include artists:
Using this map to empathize with arts professionals in Calgary, we can gather that they are increasingly unhappy with Calgary as a working environment because:
- They are struggling financially and worried about funding opportunities
- They do not have enough time, often having to compromise their creative practice with other employment
- There is not enough adequate working space in Calgary
- They are feeling less supported by the city
- They do not feel that they are part of important decision-making processes that affect their livelihoods
Considering the assumptions above, I’ve used How Might We questions to experiment with different ways of thinking about this problem:
By considering the situation, stakeholders and environmental factors we were able to identify a problem: A significant portion of Calgary’s arts professionals no longer want to live in Calgary. After switching focus and empathizing with the “user”, we are better informed to break down the problem and identify areas of opportunity:
- HMW consult artists differently when involving them in district revitalization/development plans?
- HMW increase overall awareness of available grants and funds in the arts community?
- HMW consider different uses for dormant space in the city and its potential to be used for creative practice?
- HMW create sustainable opportunities for arts professionals?
- HMW make the grant application process easier and more accessible?
- HMW explore other ways of providing funding for the arts, independent of government grants?
Of course, the empathy map above does not represent every artist in Calgary, but is an aggregated persona created using recent data made available to the public. I have not taken large systemic issues into account. The main reason being that I do not think I could do that conversation justice and give it the care it deserves with this single blog post.
Tricia Wang discusses how the How Might We question is misused in her article Design thinking’s most popular strategy is BS. She suggests that it can often reinforce power hierarchies and enable further discrimination. Instead of discarding this methodology however, she proposes a shift. Instead of asking How Might We? (HMW) We can ask:
- Who should we talk to? (WSW)
- Why are we doing this? (WAW)
(Wang, 2022)
If we are going to use Design Thinking to explore why arts professionals are increasingly unhappy with their working environment in Calgary, I think these prompts are essential to continue the conversation. Design thinking provides an excellent starting point to break down the situation and really examine what the problem is or problem areas are.
Moving forward, we should also consider the possibility that there could be underlying systemic issues in even some of the smallest problems we choose to investigate, and perhaps we should always be asking ourselves, “who else needs to be part of the conversation?”
References:
Calgary Arts Development. (2018). (publication). Economic Impact Assessment of Calgary Arts Organizations. Retrieved June 18, 2022, from https://calgaryartsdevelopment.com/publications/economic-impact-assessment-of-calgary-arts-organizations/.
Calgary Arts Development. (2020). (publication). COVID-19 Impact Survey. Retrieved June 18, 2022, from https://calgaryartsdevelopment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/COVID19ImpactSurvey-2020ArtsCultureCreativeIndustries.pdf.
Calgary Arts Development. (2021). (publication). 2020 Arts Professionals Survey. Retrieved June 17, 2022, from https://calgaryartsdevelopment.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CalgaryArtsDevelopment-ArtsProfessionalsSurvey-2020.pdf.
Calgary Foundation. (2021, September 21). 2021 Vital Signs. Calgaryvitalsigns.ca. Retrieved June 18, 2022, from https://calgaryvitalsigns.ca/
Calgary named most livable city in North America. Calgary Economic Development. (2019, September 4). Retrieved June 20, 2022, from https://www.calgaryeconomicdevelopment.com/newsroom/calgary-named-most-livable-city-in-north-america/
Gonzalez, X. (2021, July 24). Long read: The Arts Vision for Calgary’s downtown and the need to include artists. LiveWire Calgary. Retrieved June 19, 2022, from https://livewirecalgary.com/2021/07/23/long-read-the-arts-vision-for-calgarys-downtown-and-the-need-to-include-artists/
Sustainable Calgary. (2021). (publication). State of our City 2020. Retrieved June 16, 2022, from http://www.sustainablecalgary.org/publications-1/2020/5/25/2020-state-of-our-city.
Wang, T. (2022, April 26). Design thinking’s most popular strategy is BS. Fast Company. Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://www.fastcompany.com/90649969/the-most-popular-design-thinking-strategy-is-bs
West Anthem. (2020). (publication). Music Ecosystem Study. Retrieved June 18, 2022, from https://www.westanthem.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/West-Anthem_Final-Report-Music-Ecosystem-Study_12_16_2020.pdf.
White, R. (2022, April 4). Calgary gets no respect as a creative / arts city. Everyday Tourist. Retrieved June 17, 2022, from https://everydaytourist.ca/city-planning-101/calgary-gets-no-respect-as-a-creative-arts-city
