Keyword: “Equality”

MIAAW title page

Pod­cast dis­cus­sion with Owen Kel­ly and Sophie Hope in the MIAAW series explor­ing the impos­si­ble infra­struc­ture for artists’ prac­tices and livelihoods. 

Read “The impossible arts infrastructure” in full

Is artists’ exploita­tion inevitable?

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

Crack­ing up — title

Analy­sis of the plight of visu­al artists dur­ing Covid-19 illu­mi­nates the work­ing con­di­tions of a chron­i­cal­ly under-exam­ined sub-sec­tion of cul­tur­al labour. It demon­strates the sever­i­ty of pan­dem­ic impacts on visu­al artists’ social and eco­nom­ic cir­cum­stances, includ­ing from inap­pro­pri­ate cri­te­ria for access­ing gov­ern­ment and Arts Coun­cil Eng­land emer­gency mea­sures. A cen­tral con­cern is con­sid­er­a­tion of how arts poli­cies might bet­ter acknowl­edge and account in future arts infra­struc­tures for the dis­tinc­tive, diverse social con­tri­bu­tions of this work­force ele­ment. The com­men­tary reveals a stark con­trast between ambi­tions at nation­al and local lev­els about what artists and the arts are for, and where and how arts pol­i­cy should be made and imple­ment­ed. It evi­dences an emerg­ing grass­roots appetite for a dra­mat­ic shift from cur­rent hier­ar­chi­cal pat­terns dri­ven by nation­al imper­a­tives to nuanced, localised infra­struc­tures that can ensure artists’ mul­ti­ple tal­ents and assets con­tribute ful­ly to social and eco­nom­ic change for the bet­ter with­in communities.

Read “Cracking up: the pandemic effect on visual artists’ livelihoods” in full

Dou­ble Neg­a­tive masthead

Essay analysing flaws and impacts on artists of the UK’s extreme neo-lib­er­al arts econ­o­my with sug­ges­tions for chal­leng­ing and redress­ing the inequities caused.

Read “Let artists flourish, for equality’s sake” in full

Advo­ca­cy to DCMS

This sub­mis­sion was made in June 2020 to the DCMS Com­mit­tee con­sid­er­ing the impact of Covid-19 on any sec­tors under the Depart­ment for Dig­i­tal, Cul­ture, Media and Sport’s remit. It con­tex­tu­alis­es artists’ liveli­hood frame­works and sec­toral artis­tic and eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty, high­light­ing key chal­lenges and bar­ri­ers faced by this par­tic­u­lar sub-sec­tion of the cre­ative indus­tries. It evi­dences the dis­tinc­tive lim­i­ta­tions of short-term emer­gency mea­sures from Gov­ern­ment and the Arts Coun­cil to alle­vi­ate imme­di­ate Covid19 cir­cum­stances. Although arts pol­i­cy mar­gin­alised sup­port for artists’ liveli­hoods after the 2008 reces­sion, the exam­ples of artists’ indi­vid­u­alised resilience strate­gies illus­trate the scope and val­ue of sup­port­ive inter­ven­tions by pol­i­cy rel­e­vant to fore­cast­ing new strate­gies for ame­lio­rat­ing the medi­um and longer-term effects of the pan­dem­ic on this vital, dis­tinc­tive cre­ative indus­tries sub-sec­tion. The ratio­nale for struc­tur­al changes in imple­men­ta­tion of arts pol­i­cy and fund­ing is to remove known bar­ri­ers and bet­ter in future cap­ture and ampli­fy the assets that artists cre­ate for their own resilience and bring to social well-being over a life-cycle. 

Read “Support for artists' livelihoods in a Covid-19 world” in full

Artists emer­gency hashtag

“We must see the cul­tur­al ecosys­tem in which every per­son, every organ­i­sa­tion, every cul­tur­al expres­sion, has a legit­i­mate place.” Fran­cois Mataras­so, Let’s use this breath­ing space wise­ly, 25 March 2020

Strate­gic arts pol­i­cy fund­ing inter­ven­tions premised on equal­i­ty and co-oper­a­tion are key to sus­tain­ing visu­al artists’ liveli­hoods over a life-cycle. This text in the Covid19 port­fo­lio com­bines sec­ondary data analy­sis with cross-ref­er­ences to pri­or and new research to offer six ref­er­ence points for the eco­nom­ic val­ue of artists’ prac­tices with­in the arts and cre­ative indus­tries includ­ing indi­ca­tion of their income sources in broad terms. It con­cludes with an argu­ment for vital new struc­tur­al arts pol­i­cy and advo­ca­cy mea­sures to ensure that many visu­al artists – not just a few — sur­vive through the imme­di­ate peri­od of the Covid19 emer­gency and dur­ing what is like­ly to be a sus­tained peri­od of eco­nom­ic reces­sion beyond. 

Read “Artists’ emergency: arts policy’s role in the future of artists’ livelihoods” in full

Susan Jones Zoom

Doc­tor­al research 2015 – 19 that gath­ered qual­i­ta­tive evi­dence from artists in North West Eng­land to define con­ducive con­di­tions for pur­su­ing art prac­tices and liveli­hoods over time. Includes cri­tique of arts poli­cies in Eng­land 1985 – 2015 intend­ed to be sup­port­ive of artists and new insights into bar­ri­ers to sus­tain­ing artists’ liveli­hoods in future.

Read “Artists' livelihoods: the artists in arts policy conundrum” in full

Pay pol­i­cy concept

Intro­duc­tion to fees to artists for exhibit­ing in pub­lic with exam­ples indi­cat­ing that sus­tain­ing such schemes is depen­dent on wide­spread and con­tin­ued accep­tance of the prin­ci­ple and rig­or­ous self-reg­u­la­tion with­in the sec­tor, and on gain­ing suit­able lev­els of pub­lic sub­sidy to the visu­al arts. Three financ­ing options are con­sid­ered in sup­port of equa­nim­i­ty. An after­word con­sid­ers whether in a polit­i­cal cli­mate of reduced sub­sidy to the pub­lic sec­tor, some new strate­gies are need­ed to finance the arts and artists’ contributions.

Read “Enforcement, equanimity and an afterword – thoughts on sustaining fair pay for artists” in full

This paper com­bines argu­ments first pre­sent­ed by Susan Jones at an engage annu­al con­fer­ence in which she ques­tioned the effi­ca­cy of our insti­tu­tion­al­ly-dri­ven visu­al arts ecol­o­gy with new research and enquiry into future cul­tur­al, dig­i­tal and social envi­ron­ments for the arts. It calls for adop­tion of a more open, imag­i­na­tive, lat­er­al, col­lab­o­ra­tive and respon­sive approach­es to cre­at­ing cul­tur­al val­ue, premised on build­ing rela­tion­ships and rap­port with the dif­fer­ent kinds and band­widths of audi­ences and with the enablers and the mak­ers of art. Links updat­ed 17/05/2018

Read “​Creativity at the heart: the holistic approach” in full