Culture Pay Survey
for fair pay & financial transparency
Good day everyone,
With the help of a collective of volunteers*, I am running a Culture Pay Survey to gather data to push for fair pay and highlight the true costs of cultural work.
And if you need an extra incentive, know that by responding, you’ll be entering a raffle draw for a 500,000 Naira unrestricted project grant.
How did this come about:
On the evening of January 30, I posted on my Instagram story: “Who wants to partner with me to run a survey on how artists, creatives and cultural practitioners in Nigeria are making a living?”
Intellectual, creative, and strategic labor remain undervalued worldwide, but in Nigeria, a history of cultural infrastructure collapse and dominant economic ideologies have made the problem worse. Still, we all deserve a cultural industry where we can thrive.
Anyone who has heard me talk about my work since 2021 has heard me say I’m exploring how Nigerians are making a living, creating belonging and finding meaning/healing in our lives. The making a living part is so important to me, something I truly think about every day, and not just because as a culture worker myself working in this industry full-time in Nigeria precarity is the #2 pain point. (#1 the pressure to have to explain yourself to everyone and always advocate for why your work is not a waste of resources.)
This survey is me acting on #1 and #2 pain points.
A number of people responded continuing the conversation in my DMs or just letting me know that the survey would be useful to them or to people they know.
23 people indicated their interest in working with me on this and I created a group chat and we started sharing ideas. I created a plan. Elizabeth Akpan, Kachi Eloka, Edikan Umoh, Ama Benewaa Tawiah, and Princess Briggs have been the most active on the group chat, helping me spread the word, draft memos, edit graphics and so on. We are all volunteers.
The grant incentive and ads are funded out-of-pocket among us and an anonymous charitable donor.
Who counts as a culture worker?
Anyone whose work entails exploring, reflecting or preserving our ways of life, our stories, and our ideas.
Think- people in Film/TV, Music, Book & Magazine Publishing, Podcasting and Radio, Journalism, Performing Arts (Theatre, Dance, Comedy, Spoken Word), Visual Arts (Painting, Sculpture, Installation, Photography), Fashion, Architecture, Humanities Research, Libraries, Museums, Archives, and Heritage Sites, Cultural Policy and Organising, Web-based Arts and some aspects of the creator economy.
Who can take the survey?
Culture workers who are Nigerian residents.
What is culture?
Culture is our way of life. It is so much more than 'cultural day' in the sense of 'tradition' and ethnic identity.
It is the everyday practices, beliefs, and behaviours of a society. What you eat, our economic behaviours, what technologies we use, how we dress, how we entertain ourselves, etc.
“Culture is ordinary, that is the first fact.” - Raymond Williams (pdf)
What will be the outcome?
The survey results will be published online and accessible for free, accompanied by a downloadable pdf report (on the Studio Styles website and across other media channels).
Our release target is April 2025.
This may be the start of something new, as the problem of pay in the cultural industry will not be solved by a 2-month survey. But we think of this survey as a self-contained project with a clear end (as the report and published open data). If we decide to do something else, you will hear about it on the Studio Styles Instagram page or via this Studio Styles newsletter (studiostyles.substack.com).
Data Privacy
The survey respects your privacy.
To ensure 100% anonymity, the survey does not ask for your email or any identifying information in the survey form—your email remains private, even if you're signed into a Google account. If you’d like to enter the giveaway, you’ll see a separate link at the end to submit your email.
The separate form asks for your email so we can contact you if you win the raffle, or if you would like to be sent the survey report. There is an option there to sign up for this Studio Styles newsletter, and if you opt in, your email will be used solely for sending you the newsletter and updates about our projects.
We will not use, share, or sell your email address for any other purpose.
More info?
IG: (@ss.studiostyles)
✉️: hello@studiostyles.org
Of course, I made a playlist:
#CulturePays
The WhatsApp group chat has:
A Billion Laughs (Dami Deremi)
Oluwabukunmi Olukitibi (Hearts Heartist, Imi is Breath)
Dami Deremi (A Billion Laughs)