Research by Susan Jones on artists' economic and emotional precarity and the social and political factors affecting artists' practices and livelihoods.
Cover: Working artists aspect of arts and labour
This essay for the 2014 Seoul Art Space, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture International Symposium briefly covers UK arts policies for support to artists’ development, comments on their impact on artists’ social and economic status and suggests a rethinking of the artists’ intrinsic role in society as a vital part of securing and sustaining contemporary visual arts in the future.
This paper used comparative data as a backdrop to a commentary designed to illuminate a discussion on whether there are ‘Too many artists?’, raising a range of issues, questions and (mis)perceptions — in part about the role of artists in life in general and impact of state intervention and arts policy-making in particular.
Even in countries where there are well-developed fee and pay systems, there is evidence to demonstrate that artists’ wages remain unacceptably low. This is a baseline problem that few in the infrastructures for the arts seem willing to tackle and resolve.
