ARTIST as FEC employer text: $21.9 million

A one-word job, not a census of the arts

FEC forms store whatever filers type in the employer box. ARTIST is that word. The $21,874,468 total is itemized individual gifts whose grouped employer text matches it. It is not auction-house revenue, not a museum payroll, and not every painter, sculptor, or performer who donated while listing a studio, a school, or SELF-EMPLOYED instead of the job title.

People who typed ACTOR, MUSICIAN, WRITER, ENTERTAINER, PAINTER, or a company legal name sit in other rows. LobbyVault does not recode those variants into ARTIST. Visual-arts and performing-arts workers share the same stored word when they typed it; the file does not split them. Makeup, graphic, and tattoo workers who typed ARTIST sit in the same bucket for the same reason: the stored letters match, and LobbyVault does not invent a medium flag the FEC form never collected.

1,573 donors, 60,193 lines, $21.9 million

1,573 unique donors produced 60,193 ARTIST contribution lines totaling $21,874,468. Unique-person count is modest beside the dollar total, with receipts per donor running high relative to unique people. Repeat giving — several committees, several cycles — explains lines above unique people. The packet does not publish a mean gift as its own FEC field.

Party share is not on the industry headline. Unitemized gifts never appear. Independent expenditures by groups that do not carry this individual-employer string are outside the $21,874,468. Guild or union committee filings that list a committee name, not this title, are other rows. Size here is a filing-frequency fact: 1,573 people produced 60,193 itemized lines totaling $21,874,468, not a measure of how many people work in the arts.

ACTOR, MUSICIAN, and WRITER

ACTOR, MUSICIAN, and WRITER are separate occupation-style keys already present on the industry index. Combining them with ARTIST would mix stored strings and would still miss people who typed a studio, a label, or SELF. This page stays at $21,874,468 for ARTIST only.

Occupation pages show the companion field stored beside ARTIST. Some receipts may list ARTIST in both boxes; others may pair it with SELF or a gallery name. Those pairs are stored as typed. A person can appear as ARTIST one year and as ACTOR or MUSICIAN the next. Harvest grouping may send a mixed line — occupation ARTIST, employer a studio — to the studio key instead of this 1,573-donor title cluster; open both views before treating either as complete.

Donor table

The ARTIST donor table lists disclosed names, amounts, and recipient committees. With 1,573 unique donors, individual lines are inspectable. A large gift is a public individual contribution. LobbyVault does not infer a residual check, a gallery consignment, or a motive from the job word.

Repeat names among 60,193 lines are expected. People who make art but typed a production company, a university, or SELF-EMPLOYED as employer are not in these 1,573 unless a receipt also carried the ARTIST grouping. Read the employer field on the line before writing a visual-arts versus performing-arts story.

Galleries, grants, and what stays out

The FEC field is not a museum accession list, not an NEA grant roster, and not a state arts-council membership file. Unitemized gifts, state-only filings, and committee disbursements that lack this individual-employer string stay outside the $21,874,468.

A performer who listed a studio as employer is in that studio row. A writer who typed WRITER is in the WRITER row. SELF-EMPLOYED captures people who never wrote ARTIST. This rollup will not become a licensed-or-union subset. Auction results, residual checks, and grant awards generate money questions that this $21,874,468 string total does not answer; the itemized federal gift is the only fact on the line.

Source

FEC.gov via LobbyVault: $21,874,468, 60,193 contributions, 1,573 donors, top employer ARTIST. The ranking uses FEC employer/occupation self-reports, not a NAICS performing-arts or visual-arts sector.

Compare ACTOR, MUSICIAN, and WRITER on the industry index. Use occupation pages for titles stored next to ARTIST. Studio, label, and school legal names, if typed, are other employer keys. Keep ARTIST’s $21,874,468, 60,193 contributions, and 1,573 donors on this job-title string. Cite FEC.gov via LobbyVault, not a gallery file and not a NAICS arts total.

Questions

How much have ARTIST-listed donors given federally?

LobbyVault attributes $21,874,468 to the ARTIST employer string, from 60,193 contributions and 1,573 donors. These are itemized individual receipts, not a NAICS arts-sector total and not a gallery or guild PAC. Unitemized gifts are omitted. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault.

Does this include every entertainer who donated?

No. Only receipts whose grouped employer text is ARTIST are in the $21,874,468. People who wrote ACTOR, MUSICIAN, WRITER, SELF-EMPLOYED, or a studio name are in those other rows. The 1,573 donor count is unique contributors in this string, not a union or arts-council headcount.

Is ARTIST the same as ACTOR in FEC data?

No. ACTOR is a separate grouped string with its own page. A receipt stamped ARTIST is counted only here. LobbyVault does not merge performing-arts and visual-arts words into one entertainment industry. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

How many unique artist donors are listed?

The rollup counts 1,573 donors and 60,193 contribution lines. Repeat gifts raise the receipt count. This is not a Census of working artists. Figures are limited to the FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.