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Economic Development
The Economic Impact of Montana Artists
Table of Contents
Discipline and
Distribution of Artists
The responses were sorted to examine the extent of responses by artistic discipline. The results of the compilation are shown in Chart 1. Obviously, there are more visual artists than any other discipline. Visual arts encompasses many sub-disciplines including painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. The pie chart below adequately represents the distribution of respondents by discipline.
Chart 1
Out of the 795 artists that responded to the survey, 336 stated that they are full-time artists and 433 stated they are part-time. The following map outlines the density of artists by zip code. While there are concentrations of artists in the western part of the state, it is important to note that almost 25% of respondents were from the eastern half of the state (east of Lewistown). Map 1 shows the distribution of responding artists.
Map 1: Responding Artists by Location
The following four maps identify the density of responding artists by county and artistic discipline.
Map 2: Performing Artists Locations
Map 3: Traditional and Crafts Artists Locations
Map 4: Literature Artists Locations
Map 5: Visual Artists Locations
Although artists are located statewide, it is interesting to look at the concentration of artists in the major cities within Montana. Chart 2 shows the number of responding artists by major city within the state. The greatest number live in Missoula, Bozeman and Billings while fewer numbers are located Great Falls and Helena. Surprisingly, there are almost as many artists living in Livingston as in Butte, although Butte has five times the overall population of Livingston.
Chart 2
Although ethnic background was not asked specifically in the survey, data was aggregated by zip code to identify the number of artists located on Indian reservations within the state. Chart 3 shows the number of responding artists by reservation. The vast majority of responding artists were from the Flathead reservation. It is important to note that this does not guarantee that all of these respondents are tribal members, merely that they live within tribal boundaries. We received no responses from the Rocky Boy and Northern Cheyenne reservations.
Chart 3
