***CORRECTION: An earlier version of this press release mistakenly excluded funders of the APAP Arts Compensation Project. We thank the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Wallace Foundation for helping make this project possible. It also stated in error that Dominican University is in Forest Glen, IL, instead of River Forest, IL. Please see the corrected release below.***
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Jenny Thomas
Director, Marketing and Communications
Enrollment for the APAP Arts Compensation Project
is now open.
The new platform will give presenting organizations and venues access to contribute to and search real-time data on staffing, compensation and benefits.
The industry initiative is an important step in a movement towards pay transparency and equity.
August 10, 2023 - The Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) is pleased to announce the opening of the APAP Arts Compensation Project (ACP). U.S.- and Canada-based presenting organizations and venues may now enroll in the ACP to access the robust data platform.
Launched as a pilot in 2022 in partnership with AMS Analytics and now open to the performing arts presenting field, the Arts Compensation Project (ACP) is an industry-specific, interactive data platform where performing arts presenting organizations and venues across the U.S. and Canada will contribute to and access dynamic, comparative, real-time data on staffing, compensation, and benefits for all levels and tenure of staff, based on organizational size, budget, region, type and more.
Participating organizations will be able to customize reports to inform their own decision-making and add their information to a body of industry data that will provide a valuable picture of the state of performing arts staffing and compensation.
"The Arts Compensation Project is an important part of the movement toward greater pay transparency and pay equity for arts workers in the U.S. and Canada." stated Lisa Richards Toney, APAP's President and CEO. "As a tool that allows arts leaders to search for the specific data they need in the moment, it could revolutionize compensation in the performing arts and advance important advocacy work for the industry."
As the platform will also collect demographic information, "It is also the first large-scale initiative in the performing arts that allows the field to look at compensation through the lenses of race and gender," notes Krista Bradley, Director of Programs and Resources. "We're optimistic that this will have a lasting positive impact on our collective work."
Participants in last fall's pilot agree. Numa Saisselin, President of The Florida Theatre in Jacksonville, Florida, explains the need for the ACP. "We have been hungry for this kind of data for it seems like forever. I’m really happy to say that the outcome for us, as a pilot program participant was extraordinary. The data is terrific."
Beginning today, participating organizations can access the platform, enter their data, search existing data, and create custom reports and charts. Upon its opening, the platform has the data from the diverse set of 67 organizations that participated in the pilot of the project, upon which new participants will build. While the platform is not static, the pilot report that APAP and AMS Analytics produced in Spring 2023 gives a glimpse of the ACP's potential.
Leslie Rodriguez, Executive Director of External Engagement at the Performing Arts Center at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, urges organizations like hers to participate for the betterment of the field. "We need to support each other by providing as much of this information as possible, so that we have the bigger picture.... That’s critically important right now."
Performing arts presenting organizations and live arts venues in the U.S. and Canada are invited to participate and can enroll here. Access to the Arts Compensation Project is available via an annual (12-month) subscription. Rates are based on budget size. Participants must be or become APAP members at the time of enrollment. Organizations that enroll during the fall enrollment period can take advantage of Founder Rates. The fall deadline to enroll is October 5, 2023. After the deadline, enrollment will open again in February 2024.
The APAP Arts Compensation Project is funded in part by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and The Wallace Foundation.
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