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Ecolo­gies for artists’ resilience

Knowl­edge of artists’ indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences of mak­ing progress, sus­tain­ing art prac­tices and of their liveli­hood choic­es over time is vital to under­stand­ing what makes the lives of artists live­able. This new qual­i­ta­tive research which exam­ines what artists are doing all day and why con­tributes to under­stand­ing what are the most sup­port­ive infra­struc­tures and ecolo­gies for con­tem­po­rary visu­al artists over their life cycle. 

Read “Ecologies for artists' resilience” in full


New Gov­ern­ment, new deal?

In this MIAAW pod­cast, Owen Kel­ly — author of Cul­tur­al democ­ra­cy now, Rout­ledge, 2023 — and I dis­cuss impli­ca­tions for artists of the (now) Labour gov­ern­men­t’s promise lit­tle’ pre-elec­tion arts pol­i­cy with its mis­placed reliance on cre­ative indus­tries rhetorics and in the con­text of social change, cul­tur­al democ­ra­cy and lack of bees in my gar­den, and iden­ti­fy flaws in Arts Coun­cil Eng­land’s 5‑point arts fix up plan. 

Read “New Government, new deal?” in full


A new deal or are artists’ futures out of their hands?

The com­bi­na­tion of pan­dem­ic impacts on the pub­lic sec­tor and high cost of liv­ing means that while every effort has been made to pro­tect and sta­bilise arts insti­tu­tions and staffers as any of a ver­i­ta­ble glo­ry of sur­veys of artists — includ­ing Industria’s expose — con­clude, artists’ social and eco­nom­ic sta­tus is in sys­tem­at­ic decline. And as new pub­lished plans from the Labour Par­ty and Con­tem­po­rary Visu­al Arts Net­work (CVAN) reveal, respon­si­bil­i­ty for flour­ish­ing sus­tain­able futures for prac­ti­tion­ers is des­tined to remain firm­ly out of artists’ own hands

Read “A new deal or are artists’ futures out of their hands?” in full


Do artists’ liveli­hoods matter?

Although artists’ liveli­hoods depend on their agency and capac­i­ty to cre­ate and cap­i­talise on their social and eco­nom­ic assets, there’s an inevitable — and unen­vi­able — strug­gle between the intrin­sic moti­va­tions under­pin­ning their art prac­tices and the small busi­ness’ expec­ta­tions of a self-employed status.

Read “Do artists’ livelihoods matter?” in full


Artists’ liveli­hoods: my essen­tial reads

The basis for artists’ liveli­hoods is hold­ing agency and capac­i­ty to cre­ate and cap­i­talise on their eco­nom­ic and social assets. But as this text shows, it’s the eter­nal strug­gle between the intrin­sic moti­va­tions dri­ving art prac­tices and the small busi­ness” expec­ta­tions attached to self-employ­ment sta­tus that is root cause of their con­tin­u­al­ly pre­car­i­ous situation. 

Read “Artists' livelihoods: my essential reads” in full


Demo­graph­ics and eco­nom­ics of artists

Pol­i­cy and many of the pro­grammes intend­ed to be sup­port­ive of artists’ devel­op­ment and careers may lack insight into the nuance of artists’ lives and how they pur­sue art prac­tices. By col­lat­ing data from a range of author­i­ta­tive sources, this new inde­pen­dent­ly pro­duced resource pro­vides a demo­graph­ic and eco­nom­ic pro­file of artists as an aid to those com­mit­ted to aid­ing artists’ to sur­vive and (maybe even) to thrive, a bit. 

Read “Demographics and economics of artists” in full


Turn­ing the tables: strate­gies for artists’ equity

This pre­sen­ta­tion address­es the prob­lem­at­ic con­di­tions for artists’ prac­tices and lives that define and con­fine their con­tri­bu­tions to con­tem­po­rary visu­al arts and soci­ety. The aim is to inform sec­toral and polit­i­cal dis­cus­sions on future reme­di­al pol­i­cy inter­ven­tions, strate­gies and infra­struc­tures that ame­lio­rate bar­ri­ers to artists’ mul­ti­ple con­tri­bu­tions and secure their social and eco­nom­ic status.

Read “Turning the tables: strategies for artists’ equity” in full


Grass­roots call for rad­i­cal change

An inde­pen­dent review demon­strat­ing the severe impacts of the pan­dem­ic on the social and eco­nom­ic cir­cum­stances of visu­al artists reveals the diver­gent per­spec­tives at nation­al and local lev­els in Eng­land about what artists and the arts are for, and on how and where future arts pol­i­cy should be made and implemented.

Read “Grassroots call for radical change” in full