A new qualitative, longitudinal study surprisingly demonstrates how the lives and artistic prospects of many visual artists improved in pandemic conditions and by doing so, provides clues to the infrastructural shifts needed to honour and sustain the talents and vibrancy of this diverse constituency in future.
While government and Arts Council England’s exclusive and short-term emergency arts funding schemes for freelancers failed to address visual artists’ livelihood needs and allowed the majority to fall through the cracks, the lives and artistic prospects of many artists were positively improved in pandemic conditions when the formal infrastructures — including its strictly applied gatekeeping protocols and restraints — went dark.
This independent research study was extended through a commission from CAMP, with early evidence including implications for arts funders and enablers published on this artists’ membership body’s website.