Methodology
We based the State of the Arts Report on qualitative data collected through interviews and focus group sessions. We interviewed eight Executive Directors from our coalition about the challenges of managing arts organizations in Silicon Valley. They discussed how local philanthropic organizations affect their missions, both positively and negatively, and shared their ideas on how the arts sector can shift from surviving to thriving with support from philanthropy and government. To encourage candid responses, we anonymized all feedback from these interviews.
In addition to the interviews, three "Collective Visioning Sessions" were conducted with 44 local artists from various disciplines. These focus groups provided insight into the artists' vision for a thriving arts sector and the barriers preventing this vision. Finally, this report incorporates research from key sources, including SV Creates, the San Jose State University Human Rights Institute, and Open I/O, to contextualize and support the findings.
