The Arts Compensation Project (ACP) gives presenting organizations and venues access to data on staffing, compensation and benefits to inform decision-making, helping arts leaders and arts workers alike.
"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...Thank you to APAP for doing this."
– Numa Saisselin, The Florida Theatre, ACP Pilot Participant
The Arts Compensation Project Data and Trend Report will give the field access to the staffing, compensation, demographics, and benefits data collected from municipal, festival, college/university, and independent presenters across the U.S.
The 60+ page report will include:
- Data representing 65 organizations, 830 full-time roles, and 1,000+ employees.
- Total compensation, including base salary, bonus and incentives, deferred compensation, other reportable compensation, and other non-taxed benefits.
- The 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles for total compensation for 7 management levels, in the following departments: Administration, Box Office, Development, Education, Events, Finance, Marketing, Operations, Production, and Programming.
- More than 50 graphs and 20 tables illustrating the data.
This robust report, created in partnership with AMS Analytics, will go on sale in mid-July. Get a sneak peek at the report by joining our webinar on Tuesday, July 16 at 2:00 p.m. (EDT). RSVP here.
Spring 2024 enrollment is about to open.
Interested in the Arts Compensation Project?
Email us at ACP@apap365.org.
In 2022, APAP announced the pilot phase of the Arts Compensation Project (ACP), a ground-breaking initiative examining performing arts salaries and compensation. In 2023 and early 2024, in partnership with AMS Analytics, APAP invited U.S. and Canada-based presenters and venues to enroll in the ACP, an interactive platform that gathers data and provides insights vital to arts leaders and arts workers alike. Enrollment is now closed.
An important step towards greater pay transparency, parity and equity for arts workers, this industry-specific and customizable tool gathered comparative compensation data on key positions in presenting organizations and venues across North America.
At the APAP|NYC 2023 conference, APAP and AMS Analytics presented a sample report of salary and compensation data from the pilot cohort of the ACP. Read the ACP Pilot Study Report here.
The APAP Arts Compensation Project offers the following benefits:
- Real-Time Data: The ACP platform gives you access to the most current data on staffing, compensation, and benefits for presenting organizations available in real time.
- Comprehensive: The data collected within the ACP platform includes all levels of staff (executive, director, manager and administrative), compensation, benefits, and tenure for positions according to organizational budget, staff size, region, number of performances, geographic setting (urban, rural, suburban) and type of presenting organization (independent, municipal, university/college, festival).
- Dynamic, Not Static: The ACP is not a static report, but an interactive tool in which you enter your own data, search anonymized data from peer organizations, and build your own reports and charts based on what you need to know.
- Customizable: By participating, you and your organization help customize the ACP platform and the kinds of data collected to fit your evolving needs, the needs of your presenting colleagues, and our industry as a whole.
- Supports Data-Driven Decision-Making: The ACP provides you with the data you need to inform your organizational decisions and policies, measure your organization against regional and national benchmarks, and influence key stakeholders to allocate resources accordingly.
- Promotes Equity: Because the ACP collects demographic information, it is the first of its kind in the performing arts, giving the field an understanding of staffing and compensation trends through a race and gender lens.
- Representation: By participating, you provide your organization’s data and ensure that the insights and analytics include organizations like yours.
- Advocacy for the Industry: The ACP will give the performing arts community authoritative data on salaries and compensation in order to advocate for our industry and workforce.
"The benefit of doing this is not just for my organization, but for the field. We need to support each other by providing as much of this information as possible, so that we have the bigger picture. Your participation will uplift the field and that’s critically important right now."
– Leslie Rodriguez, Performing Arts Center, Dominican University, ACP Pilot Participant
Supported in part by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Wallace Foundation.
