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Definitions

Who is a “creative worker”? Anyone who earns income from creative, cultural or arts-based pursuits, or works within the creative sector as an employee, independent contractor, entrepreneur or gig worker.

What is the “creative sector” or “arts and culture sector”? An overarching term to capture the breadth of activity within artistic and cultural industries, including nonprofit organizations, creative businesses, museums and art galleries, music, film and television, digital media, theater, dance, craft, fashion, publishing, architecture and design. Activities involve the development, production, dissemination and preservation of creative goods and services, as well as related endeavors such as education and management.

Definitions from the City of Chicago’s 2023 Citywide Plan (pdf).

Context & Research

DCASE’s and BACP’s efforts are grounded in policy and advocacy work at the local and national levels that seek to address the disparities of creative workers’ working conditions.

Chicago’s creative community has repeatedly called for the City to develop standards and resources for people who work in arts and culture, and to prioritize racial, gender, disability, age, geographic and other equity considerations in this work.

Such calls are specifically mentioned in the 2023 Transition Report (pdf) and the 2023 Citywide Plan.

The 2024 “Creative Worker Rights: Art is Labor” Campaign responds to an understanding of the labor conditions for creative workers that includes:

• The artist labor force, a subset of the creative workforce, in Chicago is estimated to be more than 34,000 individuals. Research details significant earnings disparities by race, ethnicity, and gender. (Novak-Leonard 2022)​
• Arts organizations hired 25% more artists on average in 2022 than in 2019; this hiring was reported as distinct from organizations' full-time and part-time staffing. (Voss, Roscoe, Fonner and Benoit-Bryan 2023) ​
• Chicago Arts Census data showed that respondents' median income in 2021 ranged from $35,000 to $40,000, with more than 70% of respondents reporting an income in 2021 below Chicago's minimum subsistence wage of $54,046. (Bowen, Burke, Koch, Johnson and Sykes 2023)​
• 61% of respondents at DCASE IAP applicant sessions in 2023 reported that less than 40% of their income comes from their artistic work/practice.​
• Nationally, artists and arts workers are 3x more likely to be self-employed than the general workforce. (Yang, Briggs, Shakesprere, Spievack, Spaulding and Brown 2021)