When Malcolm Grear, professor emeritus at the Rhode Island School of Design, opened his design studio in Providence nearly 50 years ago, a lot of people thought it was a foolish idea.
“I remember when we first came here [in 1960], people said a design studio would never work in Providence,” said the renowned graphic designer. “I don’t know how many people told me that.”
They were wrong. Since 1960 Grear and his team of designers, who now work out of an Eddy Street office, have gone on to do design work for such concerns as the Metropolitan Opera, the National Gallery, Harvard University, Hallmark Cards and the 1996 Centennial Olympics in Atlanta.
Grear is one of many designers who make Rhode Island their home – 3,790 as of the year 2000, to be precise. That’s according to a report recently prepared by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), “Artists in the Workforce 1990-2005,” which says that Rhode Island ranks third in the nation for the number of designers working here when compared to the total civilian labor force in the state.
Using 2000 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, the study said Rhode Island’s 3,790 designers made up .71 percent of the total work force. The report showed an increase in the number of designers living here from 2,802 in 1990, a 35-percent hike. Massachusetts ranked first with 36.9 designers per 10,000 people, the study said, Connecticut was second with 36.5 and Rhode Island, third at 36.2. The National Endowment for the Arts report uses a broad definition of designer, including but not limited to commercial and industrial designers, fashion designers, floral designers, interior designers, even window trimmers and merchandise displayers.
There were 779,359 designers in the United States in 2005, the study said, using census and American Community Survey data. Women made up 54.9 percent of the nation’s total designers, who had a median age of 40 and a median income of $34,400 in 2005 dollars. More than 60 percent work full time, a higher level than other artists’ groups except for architects and producers, the report said, and more than two-thirds work for private for-profit employers.
The NEA report is an attempt to quantify the impact artists have on the work force nationally and in each state. Rhode Island, for instance, ranked 12th in the nation as of 2000 for the number of artists who live here, 7,945, versus the total civilian labor force. Massachusetts ranked 5th with 57,795 and Connecticut was 6th with 28,605 artist residents. The total number of “Americans who identified artist as their primary job” as of 2005 was 1.99 million, more than the number of medical doctors, farmers and those in the legal profession, the report said. Designers are the single largest group, making up 39 percent of all artists in the U.S. Aggregate income of all artists was $70 billion annually.
“The time has come to insist on an obvious but overlooked fact – artists are workers,” said Dana Gioia, chairman of the NEA. “They make things and perform services, just like other workers, and those goods and services have value – not merely in lofty spiritual terms but also in dollars and cents.”
Regarding designers in Rhode Island, Grear said he has found Providence a congenial and effective place to work in part because of the collegiate and cultural amenities, but also because the state’s small size has allowed him to gain an edge on competitors. “People have no idea how much business designers bring to this part of the country,” he said. For instance, when his firm did the design work for the 1996 Olympics, which included designing the relay torch and the medals, Grear said he was able to have prototypes made quickly here. “Our competitors can’t necessarily do that in other parts of the country,” he said.
Graphic designer John Caserta, a North Carolina native and Fulbright scholar who has worked in Cambodia, Italy, San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, opened his three-person design studio, The Design Office on Westminster Street, this year. Providence, he said, “seems full of opportunity” and “has a wonderful feel. It’s a liberal place, so clients can be more open-minded,” he said of the capital city. “It’s a progressive city, and designers thrive on that.”
Randall Rosenbaum, executive director of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, applauded the National Endowment for the Arts for preparing the report because he said it is important to quantify the contributions that artists make to prove their value in this tough budget time. Yet, he said, he does have questions about how the report defines “who an artist is and what an artist is.”
Using figures mostly from the Census Bureau, the report tracks people who “work in jobs that are classified or considered the arts,” he said. “In Rhode Island, we have an enormous number of people who don’t necessarily make their living in those categories.” He cited the example of a dancer with a ballet company who holds down a second job and wondered if that person would be considered an artist in the study. “From my perspective as director of the state council on the arts, I have to think in a much broader way because we represent the entire artistic community,” he said.
While the report focuses on Americans listing artist as their primary occupation, it also estimates that there are 300,000 people in the country who have secondary employment as artists.
Other findings in the NEA report:
• Vermont lead the nation in the percentage of writers as of 2000, with 11.3 per 10,000 people;
• Tennessee was tops for musicians, with 11.8 per 10,000;
• California led the nation in the percentage of actors who live there, 5.3 per 10,000, with New York second at 4.2;
• Massachusetts in 2000 had a higher percentage of architects than any other state, 12.9 per 10,000 residents;
• Nevada led the nation for the number of entertainers and performers, 8.9 per 10,000 residents, and dancers and choreographers, 6.9;
• New Mexico had a higher percentage of fine artists, art directors and animators than any other state with 18.1 per 10,000 people in 2000. •
