I attended one of the ICA Friday salons last week, the topic was professional development, the target audience young artists just leaving university and blinking fearfully in the harsh light of the real world.
As I wasn’t the target audience perhaps I shouldn’t judge the quality of the advice, which seemed variably to be “get another job” or “opt out and don’t mind if you never have a pension, sick pay, enough money for the rent or your own home”.
There are various reasons why it doesn’t pay to be an artist, and they have been written about by many others before me. The culture we inhabit where the only value is financial, the equation of creativity and the arts as a labour of love and therefore not something which rewards with income, pensions, sick pay and job security, and the reliance of the art infrastructure on the labour and creativity of artists and interns willing to work for free.
So are there any solutions? Is it every man for himself?
It certainly seems that way when big name artists earn megabux for their international dealers, shady business practices abound and fleecing young artists out of their (or their parents) savings for “mentoring” and exhibiting is de rigeur.
At the meeting at the ICA I ventured to suggest that pooling resources with your peers is your best strategy, this was dismissed. “Other artists are your competition!” I was told. And they are to a certain extent, but only if you consider that art is an interchangeable product, where if only the buyer saw your product, they’d drop the art they are holding and buy yours instead. That’s taking your cue from the market, and we’ve already seen how well that works socially, long term.
There is a feeling in the air, austerity, desperation, a need for change. These poor schmucks graduating from art school are already being called ‘a lost generation’ because their prospects for paid employment in their chosen field is virtually nil. They have been sold a pup, their employable skills are poor, their debts are as high as their expectations, and the art colleges and universities aren’t doing enough to prepare them for the reality of living on fresh air and enthusiasm, the way the rest of us get by.
My solution for myself is work collaboratively. A group of friends, pooling our skills, time and talent to create an arts organisation. The way I pitched it to someone last week was to suggest it is better to be a small fish in a big pond, than be the tadpole, or the fish food.
Can we run something on ideas we believe in, on finances we raise ourselves, for the benefit of ourselves and others? Can we pay artists for their contributions? Can we avoid the trap of employing those only able to work for free as interns? Can we set an example for other organisations in this regard?
Alastair Gentry writes some good stuff on this
http://careersuicideblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/the-other-art-fair-a-correction/
http://www.axisweb.org/dlForum.aspx?ESSAYID=18192
And of course Emily Speed on getting paid
Footnote:
A friend tells me he accepted a commission to provide paintings for a new sheltered housing scheme for the elderly. He is a talented painter with a masters in Fine Art, he has won prizes and sold his work regularly. He met with the residents, and the PR firm working as middle man for the commission in the space, he met the interior designer(!), and they discussed the works he would make. He even agreed to use a colour palette that would fit the decor. He was paid £100 per painting INCLUDING FRAMING. When I asked why he accepted the commission, he said it was work, and all work is good. But he wouldn’t be doing it again. I wish I knew how much the interior designer was paid, or the PR firm. I’m sure we all have stories like this.
