Resource Directory

A collaboration between Discovery Partners Institute; Arts Alliance Illinois, the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts at the University of Illinois Chicago, IWERC conducts research at the intersection of artistic labor, education, workforce development, government policy, and the social and economic impacts of the arts. The partnership’s goal is to identify nation-leading and transformative improvements in how the state trains, educates, supports, and employs its creative workforce.

• Branching Out Series Report 1: “Should I stay or Should I go?”
  Factors impacting the career transitions of artists and arts graduates beyond the creative fields
• Where Do Artists Work? Exploring the Careers of Arts Graduates in Illinois and the US

Arts Alliance Illinois is partnering with the Arts Impact Initiative at the University of Illinois’ College of Fine & Applied Arts to understand the roles of art and artists in community development and social well-being to inform practice and policy in Illinois.

• Peoria’s Cultural Assets: Mapping Resources, People, and Meaning
• Chicago’s artist labor force: a comparative perspective
• The Artist Labor Force: a statistical look at Illinois in context of the U.S.
• The Status of Artists and Creative Workers

• California Creative Corps
• Colorado Creative Corps
• Arts Workers in California
• National Collaborative for Creative Work (Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts)

• Creating Healthy Communities Through Cross-Sector Collaboration (University of Florida)
• Art is Work: Policies to Support Creative Workers (American Academy of Arts and Sciences)

• The Arts and Culture Sector’s Contributions to Economic Recovery and Resiliency in the United States (National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA))
• Transforming the Workforce Development Sector through Arts & Culture (Artplace America)
• Creative Economies and Economic Recovery: Case Studies Report (National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA))
• To Accelerate our Economic Recovery, Look to the Arts (Governing)
• Creativity Sparks Economic Renewal (National League of Cities)

• Artists in the Workforce: Selected Demographic Characteristics Prior to COVID‐19 (National Endowment for the Arts)
• Arts Managers by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender: 2015‐2019 (National Endowment for the Arts)
• Artists in the Workforce: Selected Demographic Characteristics Prior to COVID‐19 (National Endowment for the Arts)
• Creative Economy State Profiles (National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA))

• CreativeWorkers.net
• Imaginator Academy