New report gives snapshot of state's cultural sector, with many earning less than a living wage

Boston Globe

11-03-2025

Nonprofits account for roughly half of the state's cultural organizations, but nearly 60 percent of them have budgets of less than $50,000. Meanwhile, the 973 nonprofits that reported employment data contributed roughly $930 million to the state's economy through wages and other benefits.
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'The sector is much, much larger than any of us ever imagined,' said MCC executive director Michael Bobbitt. 'It's also struggling financially, both in terms of the size of organizations and the median income of its artists.'
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Bobbitt said the report reveals critical weaknesses in the state's arts economy, and he hoped it will serve as a 'call to action' for the state's creative sector, legislators, nonprofits, and businesses.
The weaknesses are 'more severe than we imagined,' he said. 'If we don't change our behavior and our mindset about the cultural sector, the level of crisis is something I'm not sure many will survive.'
All told, the report identifies some 137,000 jobs in the creative sector, about 4 percent of the state's overall workforce. Roughly 25,000 people work at the cultural nonprofits that reported employment data, and the report describes more than 112,000 'generators' — individuals who derive at least half their income from cultural work.
Researchers cautioned, however, that the actual number of people working in the cultural sector is likely much higher. Only a fraction of nonprofits reported employment data, and the inventory does not account for some teachers.
The audit casts a wide net when it comes to creative occupations for these people, including everything from floral designers and technical writers to actors, architects, and editors.
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Teresa Nelson, founder and managing principal of Diversity North Group, worked with MCC to compile and analyze the data using a variety of publicly available sources, including IRS 990 forms, libraries, and CreativeGround, an artist database maintained by the New England Foundation for the Arts.
'Mass Cultural chose quite a broad variety, which was exciting and really aligns with how we think about art and culture today,' said Nelson. 'It's not just your traditional dance company and museum, but it's also art as expressed in craft, art as expressed in industrial production, like book binding or other decorative arts.'
The report found the median income across 36 disparate creative occupations was around $49,000, significantly lower than the state's individual living wage of $60,000. Similarly, the individual median incomes for 28 of the listed occupations fell below the state's living wage.
Among the occupations with the lowest median income were musicians, photographers, and performers, with dancers and choreographers having a median income of just more than $7,000. The median income for architects, meanwhile, is more than $88,000.
The research, conducted in 2024, also found persistent income inequality across the sector: Women earn less than men, and white people earn more than people of color. The 'generator' population is also less racially diverse, more highly educated, and has a smaller proportion of immigrants than the state's overall workforce.
Bobbitt said he was most surprised by how 'drastically poor' the sector is.
'This is people literally starving,' he said, invoking the stereotype of the starving artist. 'Any other sector that had those kinds of numbers, it would be a rallying cry.'
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Dee Schneidman, NEFA's senior program director for creative economy, said the report's detailed findings are in keeping with previous trends.
'It's pretty consistent with what we've seen over time,' she said. She added that the report will help grant-making agencies 'understand where to focus attention and where the levers of support might be of best use.'
Bobbitt, who in the coming months plans to present the data to legislators, philanthropists, municipal leaders, business associations, and others, said the report's implications go well beyond the state's cultural sector.
If the arts are 'in fact an amenity for the state — something that attracts business, visitors, and residents — then everybody needs to be a part of the solution,' he said, adding that he hoped the report would inform new policy to incorporate the arts into workforce-development programs. 'We're not going to be able to solve this with grants alone.'
Malcolm Gay can be reached at