Health-Care Needs of American Artists (1991)

Other Studies of Multiple Artist Populations

Investigators: Monnie Peters (researcher) and Sarah Foote Cohen (project director).

Population: Artists. (All disciplines as identified by organizations providing population from which the sample was drawn). The population included: choreographers, composers, craftpersons, designers, graphic artists, librettists, painters, playwrights and other writers, photographers and other visual artists such as filmmakers and video artists, sculptors, and creative innovators in other art forms.

Identification method: From each state arts agency, American Council of the Arts requested a list of originating artists that, as much as possible, would reflect the state’s geographic and arts disciplinary diversity. Thus the question of who was an artist was determined by the state agency. In addition, each recipient of a questionnaire was asked directly, "are you an originating artist?" If the answer was no, the recipient was instructed not to complete the questionnaire.

Sampling procedure: The total number of names, after elimination of obviously unrelated titles, was approximately 80,000 from 51 lists (states and the District of Columbia). The size of the state lists varied markedly. The smallest contained 57 names and the largest 10,651 names. To ensure adequate representation from each state, it was decided to draw a sample from each of the 51 lists individually rather than taken as a whole. Each list contributed to the total sample in proportion to its size, but no list contributed fewer than 10 names or more than 82 names. The Sample selected was 1,866 names (anticipating follow-up difficulties based on lack of phone numbers with an intended sample size of 1200).

N and Response rate: 68 percent of net eligible. The goal of the survey was 50 percent response rate from each state, and 70 percent response rate overall. In 19 states it was necessary to replace names to meet the 50 percent goal. The total number of completed questionnaires was 992. Response rate varied by state from 46 percent to 82 percent. The total number of completed questionnaires was 992.

Publication: Peters, M. and S.F. Cohen. 1991. Study of the Health Coverage and Health-Care Needs of Originating Artists in the United States. New York: American Council of the Arts.

Summary: American Arts Council research study of health coverage and health-care needs of active artists in the United States. One of the main goals was to access the need and interest in a national artists health plan. Peters and Cohen (1991) provide an excellent discussion of the difficulties in deriving a population generalizable to the entire population of originating artists.