A report came out this week from a-n The Artists Information Company and Industria. Titled Structurally F-cked it uses data compiled by an anonymous survey from Artist Leaks to reveal the extent artists are underpaid in the public art sector. I haven’t read the full report yet, but the overview offers these key findings :
An overall median hourly rate of £2.60 per hour, dramatically below the UK minimum wage of £9.50 per hour.
The median hourly rate falls to £1.88 per hour when focused on the production of artworks and exhibition-making.
76% of responses reported fees below minimum wage.
Lump-sums are a common form of payment for artists, often obfuscating the many hours of labour involved in a project.
74% of respondents stated they felt the artist fee received was ‘unfair’ in relation to the scale of the work.
Read that again, you didn’t imagine it. £2.60 an hour. Less than that even. I’m not surprised to discover it is so low. Artists are in crisis. £2.60 an hour is a crisis. The Governments Graduate Labour Market Survey in 2021 found that the average income for someone with a postgraduate degree is £42,000 a year. That averages out at about £22 an hour. I have a postgraduate degree and have been working as an artist since graduating ten years ago. Last year was my best financial year for earnings from my art (by far), and I earnt about £12, 000. I have had supplementary jobs in the last ten years, from shift work to market trader to full time employment as an art technician in a secondary school. I took those jobs because I didn’t have enough to live on without them, and I certainly didn’t have enough to keep making art. As you all know I spent January filling out eight application forms to paid residencies and funding bodies. I also applied for two jobs. So far all but one has come back with a rejection. The last answer is due at the end of this month, but I am not holding my breath. Despite all this, I’m one of the lucky ones as I did at least have a paid artist residency last year. Not many can say that.
Still, this chronic underpayment makes everything difficult.
I’ve been working on the van this week. I’ve been redesigning by bed to fit a sliding table, buying the water system, and even building in the sun yesterday for almost 5 hours. The doors have an undercoat, the front bed frame is rebuilt, and most excitingly the spice rack is painted and fitted. I designed it to be slotted into the wall cavity, using the shape of the van as best I could. It’s the first piece of the kitchen I’ve built, and I love it. Spices change everything, they make cooking infinitely more fun and food richer and more flavourful. They also changed the world. The spice trade slowly spreading out across Africa, Asia, into Europe and beyond. People moving across the world, sharing flavours and recipes. You can see the results in global cuisine. I adore that I’ve built a spot in my tiny home to continue this tradition and can’t wait to buy spices in markets across the world.
But I’m going to have to wait longer than I’d hoped. The reality of the a-n/Industria report isn’t the numbers, it’s the challenges and roadblocks such a low income creates in one’s life. I simply don’t have the money to finish the van build right now. In fact, I don’t currently have the money to get much further. What little I have left in my savings I need to be careful with until I know where my next piece of work comes from.
I’ve been asked by art students over the years what an artist needs most to survive. Luck? Connections? Talent? My answer has always been bull headed stubbornness. To survive, to keep making, to not give up when facing numbers like £2.60 an hour, you must be incredibly, immovably stubborn. You have to believe, with as much of yourself as you can manage, that being an artist is important enough to face every challenge head on and keep going despite it all. I do believe that, and I hold onto it with as much stubbornness as I can muster. I am going to do the same for the van. I will keep going until everything I can afford to do is done, and then I will wait and save, and find a way to finish it all. Because like my art, my van dream matters, and I have gotten really good at being stubborn.
Having you all here helps me keep going. Knowing I am sharing this journey with folks who are interested is an endless inspiration. But, if you’d like to help more there are a few ways you could do it...
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Next weeks letter is going to be a little late. On Wednesday I will be in York ready for the opening night of the Aesthetica Art Prize on Thursday, and for two days at the Future Now Symposium. I will write to you all on Saturday to share my stories from this wonderful moment in my career!