Status of The Artist

THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND FISCAL STATUS OF ARTISTS

IN JULY VISUAL ARTISTS IRELAND PUBLISHED THE FINDINGS OF THE SURVEY ON THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND FISCAL STATUS OF VISUAL ARTISTS IN IRELAND. THE SURVEY TOOK PLACE BETWEEN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER OF 2008. THE PUBLISHED DOCUMENT IS BEING MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE VISUAL ARTISTS IRELAND WEBSITE, AND HAS BEEN PRESENTED TO GOVERNMENT, AS WELL AS TO THE ARTS COUNCIL. BELOW IS AN OUTLINE OF OUR FINDINGS.

Visual artists in Ireland today are thriving in terms of creative output. However, these visual artists also represent some of the lowest paid members of society. They undertake their career as a visual artist against all odds – and at times feel alienated from a society that gains its cultural identity from their life’s work. Many visual artists live on the breadline; and in the current climate, some might feel their occupation is threatened or under attack – yet they continue to succeed to make work.

Rather than try to merely prove these statements emotively, Visual Artists Ireland carried out a survey in December 2008 entitled The Social, Economic and Fiscal Status of the Visual Artist in Ireland. Drawing upon our membership as a true representation of the sector, Visual Artists Ireland asked a number of volunteers to answer a series of standard questions in order to provide a true and accurate picture of life as a visual artist in Ireland today. We have chosen not to make any detailed analysis of the data collected. Instead, in these pages we show the information gathered which we feel speaks for itself.

Format
The survey comprised six parts:
Education & Training.
Work.
Unemployment and Social Welfare.
Funding and Other Sources of Financial Support.
Standard of Living.
Personal Profile.

Taking a statistical sampling approach, the number of responses received – taking into consideration completeness and usability – represents an accuracy of ±5% with 95% confidence.

Key Findings
Visual artists represent a highly educated part of the community. Self taught artists are the exception, with most art graduates progressing to MA and post-doctorate studies. Following graduation and to maintain their ongoing career development, 57% continue with some form of further education and/or professional development workshops. 49% of this further education is delivered by Visual Artists Ireland. We also provide professional development contact hours in colleges around the country so that art students can understand the realities of life as an artist following graduation.

Within the education system, the curriculum that is delivered does not include or demand knowledge of areas outside of the arts. For this reason, although highly educated and skilled, some are ill equipped for the reality of life. This reality shows that artists need to have two or three other jobs to support their families and their art practice. They take part-time positions in education, community work, volunteering, or jobs within the hospitality industry. These offer them the flexible working hours that may allow them to also spend time within their art practice.

The main reason that artists give for not having enough time to spend in their art practice is insufficient income from art making. This is not necessarily a reflection of lack of quality, but it indicates the limits of places for artists to show their work, and the small size of the art collecting population.

Artists who do exhibit are not necessarily paid. There are no set guidelines on this matter and therefore even publicly funded institutions may not pay an artist’s fee for exhibition. This is usually due to a lack of sufficient funding or a lack of understanding of the life of an artist.

Other statistics that show visual artists at the lowest income level of society are:
• 67% of artists earn less than €10,000 per annum from their creative work
• 24% earn between €10,000 and €25,000 per annum.

Taking this that this creative income must be supported by other forms of income such as part / full time work, grants etc.
• 33% of artists earn less than €10,000 per annum from all of their sources of income
• 34% earn between €10,000 and €25,000

These figures are from a period of economic growth and certainty, and even during this time 24% of artists have been in arrears in the past year.
And yet, considering these high figures only 30% of artists have signed on in the past five years. These figures will show that it is in the early years of career that artists most rely on social welfare: Age 25 – 34 = 15% : Age 35 – 44 = 10% : Age 45 – 54 = 4% : Age 64+ = 1%. For this reason it is obvious that some form of state support is required for early career artists.

As artists must be self-employed for the tax exemptions scheme, and yet some may still have PAYE jobs (61% self-employed, 62% PAYE, 83% registered as both), we have found anomalies in how artists are treated by social welfare. This means that 42% of artists who have applied for social welfare (47% means tested, 36% PRSI) have had problems. 33% have been told to retrain, 22% have been threatened with a removal of benefits, and 12% have found variations between social welfare personnel. This is a direct comment from one of our correspondents “I was given a tip never to even mention art, which is what I did and so far no probs. Self-employed people suffer the same fate... so much better in current climate to state that one is out of work since last job, waitressing teaching etc.”

It would be unfair for us not to acknowledge the work of the Arts Council of Ireland, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Culture Ireland, the British Council, and local arts offices in their support of the visual arts. But their limited funding can go only so far as the call on their resources becomes more and more stretched, and their funding becomes more reduced.

The following table shows applications for sources of funding available to artists.

The Arts Council 22%
Local Authority Funding 16%
No sources of funding available 10%
Per Cent for Art Commissions 10%
Culture Ireland 8%
The Arts Council Northern Ireland 7%
Other Government Departmental Funding 6%
Funding from Private Enterprise 4%
EU Funding 3%
Funding from Private Sector 3%
Private Individuals 3%
Non Governmental Organisations 2%
UK Lottery 1%
Non-EU Funding 0%

As the above table indicates the primary funders are The Arts Council and local authorities, with percent for art and Culture Ireland coming very close to the top. It is therefore clear that the provision of funds to these organisations / schemes ensures that the individual artist is given the wherewithal to work, and to contribute to the creative economy.

Some of the international standard questions used to show the status of the individual within society may also prove of interest.

• 40% of artists did not take holidays in the past year
• 62% couldn’t afford to
• 72% have no private pension
• 45% have no private health insurance
• 48% are the primary earner of their household
• 83% could not work as an artist without the added income of their partner

And yet, when asked 83% stated that given the choice all over again they would still choose to be an artist. It is therefore imperative that Irish society takes an integrated and strategic view where the visual arts are concerned. Visual artists contribute to the cultural identity of our nation, and also address the morale of the population. And yet, public opinion about this contribution is regularly directed by popular media that that visual artists are high earners and spongers off state systems. This needs to be quashed; especially in the light of the realities of the research that is published within this document.

Artists work at many levels, fields and contexts – for example in the areas of community, health, children, disability, environment, to name but a few. Often this work is in the form of volunteering. The continued support of the tax exemption, percent for art and the funding of the Arts Council and local authorities are vital but are only part of a larger picture that needs to be addressed.

Government needs to take a very strategic approach to how we can build a society in which the visual arts are supported. For this reason we need to look to education at its most early stages, support systems that need to be overhauled so as to recognise careers that some economists may see as an ‘irrational pursuit’, and put concrete action into ensuring that the visual arts becomes central rather than an inconvenient line item on an economist’s agenda. Only in this way can we truly say that we are a nation that places culture high on its lists of priority, and ensure that we can maintain free access to the arts such as we enjoy today.

The full publication is available for purchase as either a downloadable electronic copy or hard copy on www.lulu.com

Noel Kelly
Chief Executive Officer/Director
Visual Artists Ireland

ARTISTS MOBILITY | ASPIRATION OR REALITY
ECA CONFERENCE AT IMMA

The European Council of Artists (ECA) held its Annual Conference in Dublin from 7 to 8 November 2008. The ECA is an umbrella body composed of interdisciplinary artists' councils and artists' organisations from 25 European countries.  One of its main events each year is its Annual Conference which brings together artists and their representatives, cultural operators, politicians and MEP’s with particular interests in culture along with representatives from national and European institutions.  This years conference included papers on the following topics: artistic freedom in a globalised world, the European Arrest Warrant, borders, visa issues & cultural diversity, and the role of the European Parliament in the promotion of artists' mobility.
 
The following 6 highly regarded international speakers presented and discussed the topic of artists mobility:

• Eva Lichtenberger, MEP, Austria
• Maria Badia i Cutchet, MEP, Spain
• Lolita Jablonskiene, Chief curator National Gallery of Art, Lithuania, and ambassador of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue
• Pauline Hadaway, director of Belfast Exposed, Northern Ireland
• Ole Reitov, Freemuse - Freedom of Musical Expression, Denmark
• Helena Drnovšek Zorko, Division of International Cultural Relations,  Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

A reception to launch the conference was held in Temple Bar Gallery in Dublin city centre on Friday 7 November at 6pm. The conference sessions took place on Saturday 8 of November at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, ending with a musical performance by Na Píobairí Uilleann.

 
Visual Artists Ireland is the ECA’s representative organisation in Ireland.
Full details on the conference programme can be downloaded here
 
For further information please contact Alex Davis, Advocacy Officer:
T: 01 8722296
E: alex@visualartists.ie