The fiscal year 2018 findings are based on 537 survey responses that were collected from participating Local Arts Agencies (LAAs) during May through August of 2018 (the salary survey was conducted separately and is based on 1,117 responses that were collected during September and October of 2018).
Local Arts Agencies by the Numbers in 2018:
- 97 percent use the arts to address community development issues such as social, education, or economic challenges.
- 81 percent expect the demand for their services to increase over the next two years.
- 77 percent provide arts education programs and/or services to the community.
- 70 percent are private nonprofit organizations; 30 percent are government agencies.
- 67 percent report that their operating budget increased or remained the same from FY2017 to FY2018 (58 percent and 9 percent, respectively); 33 percent experienced a decrease in their operating budget.
- 63 percent manage one or more cultural facilities (e.g., performance or exhibition spaces, arts centers, galleries, incubators).
- 59 percent operate a competitive grantmaking program—55 percent award grants to organizations, and 53 percent award grants to individual artists.
- 53 percent work in partnerships with their local Chamber of Commerce.
- 51 percent manage a public art program; 39 percent of those manage a percent-for-art program.
- 50 percent have adopted a diversity, equity, and inclusion statement.
- 47 percent work in communities that have integrated the arts into a community-wide planning effort such as a city’s master plan or a community foundation’s regional needs assessment.
- 34 percent report that their community has completed (or updated) a community cultural plan within the past five years
2018 Local Arts Agency Profile Report
- Introduction by Randy Cohen (PDF)
- Executive Summary (PDF)
- 2018 Profile of Local Arts Agencies (full report, PDF)
- Detailed Data Tables (XLS)
- Survey Instrument (PDF)
- 2018 Profile of Local Arts Agencies - USUAF Report
Supplemental Module Reports
- Grantmaking and Equitable Investment (2018)
- Local Arts Agency Salaries, Compensation, and Demographics for 20 different staff positions (2018)
Local Arts Agency Dashboard
The Local Arts Agency Dashboard lets you compare your organization to another LAA or to a group of LAAs with similar characteristics. You can customize graphs based on characteristics like budget, service area population, legal status, or state.
