The LOS ANGELES ARTIST CENSUS is a socially-engaged, data research project that is identifying and mapping the needs of Los Angeles County-based visual artists. Founded by L.A. artist Tatiana Vahan as an outgrowth of bar-fund, the project is organized with local artists through a collaborative research process.
Gathering data about local artists provides a resource and guidance to the art world as it reckons with its problematic history and current infrastructures, and evaluates its future economic support. By centering local artists in the research process, we can provide data that is often overlooked or misinterpreted by the institutions that ordinarily conduct this type of research.
This process has taken place via public programs, zoom discussions, social media, and a publicly editable google document accessible on the project’s website. The following is an abbreviated fact sheet of what artists were experiencing prior to the pandemic. Details about the in-depth report, follows.
