Arts Reporting: TCG Asks for Theatre Artists' Input

Received via Ann Marie McKaskle of the Greater Austin Creative Alliance, the request from the Theatre Communications Group for input from those employed or seeking to be employed in the not-for-profit theatre:

I wanted to pass along a survey that Theater Communications Group is conducting. It is the final initiative of their current Field Conversations between independent artists and theatres, focusing on individual artists who either are or are aspiring to be employed primarily in the not-for-profit theatre. If you have a moment please take this opportunity to share your thoughts with TCG. The link and details about the survey are below. Feel free to pass the survey on to fellow theatre artists.

Cheers!
Anne-Marie

Dear APASO Colleagues:

As the national organization for theatre in the U.S., one of Theatre Communications Group’s (TCG) key responsibilities is to listen to the needs of our field and to respond in ways that will help to strengthen, nurture and promote the U.S. theatre ecology. While we achieve this goal in a variety of ways, including the compilation of data about theatre organizations for over 35 years, for the first time, and with the generous support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, we are gathering the opinions of theatre artists through the TCG State of the Artists Survey. For the purposes of this study, we are focusing on individual artists who either are or are aspiring to be employed primarily in the not-for-profit theatre. The survey is the final initiative of our current Field Conversations between independent artists and theatres.

In an effort to reach the broadest possible audience, we are passing the survey on to other service organizations and artist unions, and asking you to distribute the survey to your constituent independent artists. We want to know how artists feel about their careers, and ways they would like to see the field change to better meet their needs. The information gathered in this important pilot survey will inform TCG as we review our current programs and services and develop new ones that address artists’ concerns. The results of the survey will be incorporated into the Field Conversations report which will be circulated throughout the field, and the accompanying Field Conversations article to be published in the July/August issue of American Theatre.

The deadline to complete the survey is February 24, 2011. It will take about 15 minutes to complete. All responses will be kept completely confidential, but it is our intent to compile data from this survey and include it in a report to

be widely distributed. The survey is located at the link below. (If the link doesn’t appear, cut and paste the address in a Web browser.)

http://surveys.surveynetwork. com/wire/39169127/oo/main.php? projectpin=tr3ch5x2lp& starting=newsess&cacheBust= 5940

Any technical difficulties should be directed to Jason Kosakow at 301.656.0310 x107 or jkosakow@shugollresearch.com. Thank you in advance for your assistance!

Warm regards,

Teresa Eyring
Executive Director

Theatre Communications Group