About the survey

This is an artist-to-artist information gathering project aiming to make visible the realities of being a practising artist alongside parenting responsibilities. We are interested in advocacy and the sharing of information from the perspective of artists who are parents.

Many artists have children at a time that coincides with an increase in artistic activity and production. We are interested to know about the benefits and challenges of care work in harmony (or not) with artistic practice.

This survey is not just for artists with grievances to air. We want positive takes on artist-parenting as well. We want to open the conversation rather than simply report on what is and what is not. We want the experience of filling out this survey to be an invitation to open this conversation with your colleagues and peers. This survey is not biassed to a desired outcome.

The results of this survey will form a report to be released in 2024. This report will be shared with art institutions and funding bodies across Canada, and will be publically available online. All surveys are anonymous.

This survey was put together by MOTHRA: Artist-Parent Project in consultation with Good Roots Consulting, and is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.

MOTHRA is an artist-led, artist-parent collective based in Toronto. We’ve been running residencies for artists and their children since 2018. During this time we’ve noticed that participants speak about the many benefits and challenges of being both an artist and someone with caring responsibilities. This survey is an accompaniment to this practice-led research.

It is MOTHRA’s opinion that there is an ideological underfunding of culture in our society. We also acknowledge that care work is very much devalued in our society. We understand that this underfunding and undervaluing is the backdrop behind this discussion. We acknowledge that many artists are precarious workers. With this in mind we thank all of the artists for taking the time to fill out this survey.