A New Survey for Houston Artists

by Brandon Zech August 9, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-08-09 at 2.15.53 PMArtists: here is your chance to dish on all of your favorite Houston-based organizations. The Present Group & Helena Keeffe have created a survey for Houston area artists and need YOU to fill it out with information about institutions throughout the city. By taking and compiling anonymous data from a number of sources, this survey hopes to “make evident the current landscape of support for artists while the city of Houston is determining the future of that support.” This, of course, refers to the city’s new Cultural Plan that is set to be finished before Mayor Parker leaves office at the end of 2015.

The Houston Area Artists Report is supported by Charge Practicum and Fresh Arts. The “Houston Ambassadors” for the survey are Jennie Ash, Jenni Rebecca Stephenson, and Carrie Schneider.

Take the survey HERE.

12 comments

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12 comments

Robert Boyd August 9, 2015 - 16:12

I really want to fill out the survey just so I can see what the questions are! But I won’t… I hope some of you artists will report back, though.

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Iva August 10, 2015 - 18:15

1.Give basic info about yourself and your art. It’s multiple choice and makes a sentence – I am a 23 year old Female Early Career visual artist based in Houston. My primary medium(s) is/are Sculpture / Installation, Interdisciplinary. Approximately 5% of my income comes from my visual artist activity.

2. List your involvement with institutions like you would a CV, but with details. Multiple choice – In [YEAR],
I participated in a(n) [INTERACTION TYPE]
at/with [VENUE].

3. It gets more specific about pros and cons of each interaction, and if you click ‘yes’ it goes into even more detail.
-Were you paid or were your expenses covered? NO/YES
-Did you receive any non-monetary benefits? NO/YES
-Were there any hurdles? NO/YES
-Was it worth it? NO/YES

My understanding is the results will not be made public until each institution has a large enough data pool – hopefully showing clear trends as opposed to outlier reviews, good or bad, and somewhat protect artists’ anonymity.

I’m happy it exists, and I very much look forward to seeing the results. Who doesn’t love analyzing a good quantifiable data set? I’m giddy just thinking about it.

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Robert Boyd August 10, 2015 - 19:37

What do they mean by venue? Is it a non-profit institution? A commercial gallery? Something else?

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Iva August 10, 2015 - 21:09

If it’s a gallery you input the specific one. galleryHomeland for example – Galleryhomeland is a Small, Non-Profit Artspace located in Houston specializing in Interdisciplinary. All of these descriptors have drop down menus to choose what word is most fitting. Every space I’ve worked with shows up when you type the name, but there is also the option to add a venue to their bank of options. I think you should create an account and poke around. You could contribute! Surely you’ve worked with someone in Houston in some capacity. Doesn’t have to be an exhibition, could be any sort of project.

Robert, they have an option for “Interview”
You Just did one – That Counts!

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Robert Boyd August 11, 2015 - 09:40

I’m not an artist, though.

Katie Mulholland August 10, 2015 - 11:41

As I was filling this out, I noticed that it is less of a survey than it is an open-ended complaint form. So, what is this…? Doesn’t seen like a good or efficient way of collecting data because it discourages the applicant to disclose any relevant data by asking too much without asking anything directly at all. Dos that make sense? The form lacks constants( ie: a list of organizations up for consideration) in this case. It also contains too many (or two few) variables. Over it.

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Vincent Fink August 13, 2015 - 02:57

I agree, when I got to the second question I gave up cause I didn’t know what to put.

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Katie Mulholland August 10, 2015 - 11:43

Sorry if that came of as crass. Been looking at spreadsheets all day- grumpiness not intended. 🙂

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Iva August 10, 2015 - 21:22

Is GT showing faces now?
Okay, I need to test if it’s the emoji or emoticon
(three happy emojis)
🙁 :/ ;( ;-( (four sad emoticons, the last one has a nose)

…your comment is awaiting moderation…
Sorry to whoever moderates this nonsense
;p

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Iva August 10, 2015 - 21:41

Great, a definitive answer. The two basic happy/sad faces show up.
The good ol’ colon parentheses combo 🙂 / 🙁
…It’s been a slow day.

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Christina Rees August 10, 2015 - 22:15

We’ll survive.

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Michael Peranteau August 16, 2015 - 17:11

For Katie Mulholland & Vincent Frank, I would suggest you don’t fill it out. It just seems like it is easier for you to be negative than constructive. And I don’t think it was crass at all, Katie, but I do think it sounded you might have an issue with control. Just step away and let other artists do it.

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