Survey 2024: How is cultural work doing?
Reason and aim of the survey
The survey was designed to find out, with the help of cultural workers from the region, whether the currently strained traffic situation due to the closure of the A45 motorway near Lüdenscheid is also affecting cultural activities in the South Westphalia cultural region. We also used this survey as an opportunity to generally examine and query the situation of cultural workers, cultural institutions, cultural entrepreneurs, cultural associations—in other words, the entire cultural sector—in the region.
Key data:
- Survey module used: Limequery
- Duration: from May 15, 2024 to December 31, 2024
- Participants: 37
- A total of 19 questions were divided into five groups such as “Cultural infrastructure”, “Employees and members”, “Current situation in the cultural sector”, “Impacts” and “Other comments”.
- The evaluation refers only to the complete answers.
- The survey was anonymous. Participants had the opportunity to provide their institution and email address, but these details are not public.
- Participants were able to provide personal responses to open questions, which were edited so that no conclusions could be drawn about the institution.
Survey results up to 31.12.2024
You can download the survey results as PDF files here:
We've reopened the exact same survey to gather more feedback and provide more meaningful results. If you've already completed this survey, please do not complete it a second time, as this will distort the results.
Additional information: Freelancers in art and culture registered with the KSK Artists' Social Insurance Fund in 2019 and 2023 in comparison
The comparison of the self-employed artists and publicists registered with the KSK between 2019 and 2023 has shown that the total number of self-employed people registered with the KSK has actually remained the same: In both 2019 and 2023, there were a total of 770 self-employed people in the arts and culture sector in the entire cultural region of South Westphalia (=Hagen, Märkischer Kreis, Olpe district, Siegen-Wittgenstein district).
The numbers have shifted minimally within the disciplines and very slightly between districts. The only small, significant trend is a decrease in the number of self-employed people in the music discipline – from 275 (2019) to 265 (2023) across the entire cultural region. This may be due to the fact that some choir directors have reoriented their careers during the coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, the music discipline remains the most strongly represented, closely followed by the visual arts (2019: 231 artists, 2023: 236 artists) and the spoken word discipline (2019: 175 artists, 2023: 180 artists). The performing arts bring up the rear (2019: 90 artists, 2023: 89 artists).
Please keep in mind: Being insured with the KSK does not mean that you can actually survive on your income as a self-employed artist!