Keyword: “Grants for the Arts”

Con­di­tions for motility

“This is a moment fraught with pos­si­bil­i­ty.” Isabelle Tra­cy, Par­al­lel State: State of the Nation pod­cast 27 March 2020

This text in the Covid19 port­fo­lio is on the future of artists’ liveli­hoods. It starts by evi­denc­ing the impact of exter­nal trends on visu­al artists’ liveli­hoods. It then iden­ti­fies some of the pol­i­cy mis­as­sump­tions and struc­tur­al bar­ri­ers that lim­it artists’ liveli­hood prospects before demon­strat­ing that visu­al artists as a ​‘spe­cial case’ with­in the arts work­force are deserv­ing of indi­vid­u­alised atten­tion with­in arts poli­cies. It con­cludes by out­lin­ing the core qual­i­ties for pur­suit of liveli­hoods through art prac­tices that enable many artists to con­tribute to soci­ety over a life-cycle as a point of ref­er­ence for pol­i­cy-mak­ing dur­ing the Covid19 emer­gency and into the uncer­tain decade ahead. 

Read “From myths to motility: doing better by artists” in full

The chance to dream

Although not a major aspect of artists’ liveli­hoods, grants and awards to artists are a vital con­trib­u­tor to sus­tain­ing art prac­tices over a life-cycle. This paper starts by out­lin­ing the ben­e­fits of direct fund­ing to indi­vid­ual artists, describes dif­fer­ing arts pol­i­cy per­spec­tives on this in Eng­land over the last thir­ty years and pro­vides a case study of Arts Coun­cil Eng­land’s Grants for the Arts Scheme 2003 – 14 before mak­ing an argu­ment for new, nuanced, localised approach­es to nur­tur­ing and sup­port­ing the wider con­stituen­cy of visu­al artists and diver­si­ty of art prac­tices in future.

Read “The chance to dream: why fund individual artists?” in full