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Artists' pandemic stories

The exclu­sive and short-term emer­gency arts fund­ing schemes from gov­ern­ment and Arts Coun­cil Eng­land to free­lance artists failed to address their liveli­hood needs, with the major­i­ty allowed to fall through the cracks. Ear­ly evi­dence from a lon­gi­tu­di­nal study sur­pris­ing­ly demon­strates that the lives and artis­tic prospects of many artists pos­i­tive­ly improved in pan­dem­ic con­di­tions. This offers clues to the sub­stan­tial shifts in arts infra­struc­tures nec­es­sary to hon­our and sus­tain the tal­ents and vibran­cy of the diverse artists’ con­stituen­cy in future.

The study demon­strates that, once freed from the con­strain­ing infra­struc­tures that char­ac­terise the con­tem­po­rary visu­al arts, many artists were able to derive artis­tic, eco­nom­ic and emo­tion­al ben­e­fits by widen­ing the scope and direc­tion of art prac­tices and forg­ing new routes to
liveli­hoods over the longer-term.

To hear more about the study’s find­ings and what this means for future infra­struc­tures for the arts DM @SusanJonesArts via Twit­ter and book­mark this page for updates.

Thanks to all artists con­tribut­ing through inter­views and to CAMP for a finan­cial con­tri­bu­tion to the research, and oppor­tu­ni­ty to present evi­dence at an event and a pub­lish­ing commission.