Image of Kate Lucas, Coda Chroma, by Love Drum Creative.
It's that time. CREATIVE SECTOR SURVEY IS NOW OPEN.
Time for you to tell us what you think.
In 2025, 1 in 4 creative people thought Ballarat was great for creative collaborations and 75% agreed they had artistic freedom here. They reported that there is a strong creative community, but a fragile career pipeline. There was widespread uncertainty about the viability of their practice in the long term.
A few interesting standouts - musicians reported more low-income concentration than performing artists, and the most commercially viable disciplines were design, architecture and digital. Visual artists reported high hours of practice (20-60+ hours a week) but mixed levels of income to show for it. Craft practitioners and performing arts practitioners reported the strongest peer networks.
What do you think? Don't agree?
The Creative Sector Survey is open for 2026. We want to know how you feel about your creative work, the kind of support you have and what you need. This is our annual survey to measure the challenges, the gaps, the opportunities and the concerns. This survey directly shapes the work we do to help you.