RESEARCH
In addition to conducting our own research or partnering on research projects, we are active participants in many funders’ circles, research networks and industry groups to ensure we are connected and up to date on what is happening locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. In 2025 these included the Cultural Leadership Council, Downtown Strategy Champions Network, Canadian Arts Summit, Creative Hub strategy, Regional Data Working Group, Calgary Funders table, Municipal Arts Councils gatherings, National Research Group, Cultural Research Network, Non-profit Research Lab, International Arts Research Group, National Research Forum, Tri-Level Arts Granters quarterly meetings, Native Info Exchange, Alberta Data Mapping, Climate Mitigation Strategies for the Arts and CLIP Council. Information garnered at these councils and gatherings informs us about trends, ideas, impacts and gaps in arts funding, arts policy and granting practices.
Ongoing investigation through our own research gives insight into Calgary’s arts ecosystem. Intelligence gained from all our research influences choices we make and determines where there are strengths or gaps within the ecosystem. Findings from our research activities also increase our capacity as a knowledge hub and improve our ability to be a strategic advisor to City Council.
2025 was a big year for our research team.
The Cultural Spaces Infrastructure Report was published in June 2025 and shared with our partners at The City as well as with community partners who were engaged in the research. It is a technical report with eight strategic recommendations connected to possible actions. It informs our upcoming work plans, four-year strategy and budget request to The City.
A 2025 update on the Economic Impact of Calgary’s Creative Industries was produced for Calgary Arts Development by Root Economy. It reflects a bottom-up economy that plays a foundational role in shaping Calgary’s cultural identity and economic resilience. The report provides an economic impact analysis for 2022; the most recent year data is available.
In 2022, the creative sector in Calgary:
In 2025 we published findings from data collected in late 2023 in the Arts Professionals Survey report. Every three years CADA conducts a survey of arts professionals to better understand their living and working conditions in Calgary.
Survey questions related to individual’s careers, finances, health and well-being, housing, spaces and resources for artistic practice, perceptions and participation in community, training and professional development, experiences of workplace harassment, as well as basic demographics.
The survey sample comprised individuals who self-identified as professional artists, arts administrators, arts educators, technicians and other arts professionals.
Key findings:
COVID-19 has left a lasting impact.
The results of our 2020 survey illustrated just how destructive the pandemic was to the arts in Calgary. Many arts professionals experienced loss of employment and/or loss of income or found themselves unable to create or present their work because of the pandemic. In 2023, while the more immediate effects of the pandemic had eased, it was clear that Calgary’s arts community was still recovering. 60% of respondents still described the compensation they received for their work in the arts as insufficient, a slight increase from 2020.
Incomes are rising — but not fast enough.
Between 2020 and 2023, the number of arts professionals earning less than $35,000 per year dropped to 39% from 57%; this shift was associated with growth across all other income brackets. Consequently, the number of respondents who earned an individual income below the Calgary median of $65,500 dropped to 73% from 84%. This still leaves almost three-quarters of arts professionals in a less financially secure position than the average Calgarian.
Fewer arts professionals want to leave Calgary, but they are increasingly working outside the arts sector.
In 2020, 24% of respondents anticipated moving away from Calgary, a figure that fell to 16% in 2023. Information isn’t available as to whether the number of respondents expressing an interest in leaving in 2020 actually left, which would account for a potential lower figure in 2023. In 2024, Calgary Arts Development began a five-year longitudinal survey to track if artists are leaving Calgary. Even if arts professionals are not leaving Calgary, more are finding work outside the sector. Over three-quarters (79%) reported engaging in non-arts labour, over twice as many as in 2020.
Artists are struggling.
Just 9% of professional artists were able to rely entirely on their artistic practice to earn a living, compared to 19% in 2019 and 12% in 2020. This reflects a continuing drop in the percentage of full-time artists.
It is difficult to secure appropriate working and presenting space.
57% of arts professionals reported that they struggled to find an appropriate space for their practice. Many reported that even when they did have access to a space, this access had limited hours, the space was not equipped for their practice, or the space was simply not affordable.
In 2025 Calgary Arts Development released the results of the 2024 Demographic Profile of Calgary’s Arts Sector, focusing on the 197 not-for-profit arts organizations that receive annual operating funding from us. This survey was an update to the 2021 Demographic Profile of Calgary’s Arts Sector and the 2017 Equity, Diversity and Inclusion survey, aiming to provide current and detailed data essential for creating a comprehensive demographic profile of Calgary’s arts community.
Representation for minority groups in the arts is improving. Relative to 2021, more individuals employed in the sector identify as a visible minority, non-binary or gender non-conforming, 2SLGBTQ+ or disabled. There is also a high degree of intersectionality between these underrepresented groups.
We also published the 2025 Calgary Citizen Engagement Survey, on which we have partnered with Stone-Olafson every three years since 2014 to better understand the degree and nature of how Calgarians are engaging with arts and culture in our community.
Specific objectives include monitoring overall engagement with the arts; determining the type of engagement either in observation, attendance or creation; understanding community perceptions and interactions with arts and culture; evaluating citizen perceptions of the benefits of the arts and culture sector to the city, their community or themselves; and understanding whether the arts can help foster a strong sense of belonging. We will be conducting this survey more frequently in future years.
The 2025 survey found that although the arts sector is still recovering in many ways from COVID, arts engagement has mostly returned to pre-pandemic levels. However, as forecasted in our 2022 survey, the landscape of engagement has changed. Financial concerns, shifting priorities and lasting pandemic effects mean that Calgarians are finding new ways to engage, and not everyone is returning to historically popular forms of engagement.
Key observations include:
Calgarians are engaging more with the arts overall compared to 2022.
Attendance is bouncing back, but not all activities have recovered, and the average yearly amount spent on attending arts events has decreased.
Attendance is heavily impacted by engagement level, with more highly arts-engaged audiences being more likely to attend events frequently. Those who attend more events are also typically more community-engaged and feel a stronger sense of belonging in Calgary.
The way Calgarians engage with the arts is changing. There has been a notable jump in creation-based engagement, which indicates more people are participating in some kind of creative activity or hobby themselves. Self-directed arts and crafts activities took off during the pandemic and they have remained popular. This is likely due in part to their accessible and often affordable nature. However, recent studies also show that creation is more than just a hobby for many — it can fulfil deeper social and emotional needs. Whether done alone or in a group, creative activities can have a positive impact on mental health, allowing individuals to connect with themselves and others through self-expression.
With rising costs and economic challenges affecting Calgarians, it is no surprise that affordability is the biggest barrier to engagement in the arts. The uncertain economic climate is forcing Calgarians to be more selective about how they spend their time and money.
Overall perceptions of the arts remain positive:
The fourth and fifth waves of the Spotlight on Arts Audiences research were conducted and released by Stone-Olafson in 2025. We continue to co-fund this work as a service to our sector because it offers important insights that help arts organizations understand audiences in the post-COVID market as they build relevance and grow attendance.
Key findings:
A lack of economic stability and ongoing uncertainty is causing difficulties for Albertans. This is leading to feelings of lethargy and unease, which creates a challenge to showcase the value of experiential offerings to residents who are becoming more and more strict about their time and money.
Albertans are tired, uneasy and pessimistic, but despite challenging conditions, this data shows how important arts and culture are to the overall health of the community and helping audiences deal with uncertainty. Albertans are clear: our communities need to come together now more than ever. Given the ability of arts experiences to bring people together, arts and cultural experiences are essential for one’s quality of life. The effort put forth by artists and those within the experience economy positively impact one’s attitudes. The arts are, in effect, a salve.
These negative emotions are largely tied to weakened personal economics for many and general instability that is very prominent right now. But audiences also recognize that arts and culture are essential to their community — offering an opportunity to escape negativity, feel connected and experience joy.