2020 Survey Results
As the membership of Pro Art JC grows and expands into new communities, we thought it would be best to survey our members in order to adjust to the changing population of our organization. We wanted to know who we are, where we live & work, what Pro Arts doing right and what needs improvement. The survey was distributed in January with 41 of our members answering the call. Thanks to all who responded! Please read the following narrative describing the results of the survey.41 Pro Arts members responded to the survey out of about 150 active members. For the purpose of this narrative, we will refer to the members who completed the survey as respondents. The leadership and board will review the results of the survey to know our membership better, to see what we’re doing right and what we need to do to improve the organization.

From the survey, we learned that most respondents are working artists who work in art and non-art related fields fairly equally. More than 3/4 of respondents have time challenges, such as commitments to work and family. Some belong to other arts organizations therefore limiting the time they can volunteer to Pro Arts. More than half of the respondents are established artists although more than a quarter of respondents have been working as artists for less than 10 years. Slightly less than 3/4 of respondents live within 25 miles of Jersey City with slightly less than a quarter of respondents living outside of that radius. Of those who responded, slightly less than 3/4 felt that Pro Arts has helped advance their careers. However, a large majority of respondents felt they made important contacts as a result of their membership.

Almost all respondents joined Pro Arts to meet other artists, find a community in which to belong and sought professional development opportunities. 100% of respondents joined for exhibition opportunities. About 3/4 of respondents take advantage of the benefits of their membership. About 1/3 of respondents serve on committees or volunteer on some level. A bit more than half contribute to Pro Arts financially. 90% of respondents plan to renew their memberships. About 80% felt that leadership, board members and chairpersons have been helpful. Almost half felt that Pro Arts doesn’t have a clique per se while the other half of respondents didn’t have an opinion. Significantly more than half believe the fees for membership and programs are fair with the remainder feeling neutral about fees.

Regarding Professional Development opportunities, respondents noted that Meet The Curators continues to be an important program. Specifically, more than half the respondents have taken part in the portfolio review day and/or plan to again. However, less than half of the respondents felt that the Salon program is important while many others felt neutral about it.

Regarding our website, slightly more than half felt their gallery page is an important benefit of their membership.Less than half of the respondents visit our website for information while more than a quarter do not use the website for information at all. The use of social media for Pro Arts information showed almost exactly the same result. However, 84% of respondents say they are active on social media in general. We can presume from this, they see Pro Arts announcements on Facebook and Instagram passively. Almost all respondents thought our communication is excellent with about 10% feeling neutral. Specific to emails, about half didn’t feel they get too many emails with roughly the other half feeling neutral about the number of emails they receive.