Memorandum submitted by a-n The Artists
Information Company
1. BACKGROUND
1.1 a-n The Artists Information Company
(a not for profit company limited by guarantee) has a 25 year
track-record of research and publishing around artists' practice.
Through our publications, events and research our mission is to:
"stimulate and support contemporary visual arts practice
and affirm the value of artists in society". We reach over
425 artists and arts professionals daily through www.a-n.co.uk
and 32,000 monthly through a-n Magazine. We are recognised as
the representative body for visual artists and a trusted mediator
between artists and employers.
1.2 Artists are the company's largest stakeholders,
contributing over £340K annually in subscription income.
Additional stakeholders are advertisers from whom we raise £300,000
annually who include: commissioners and employers working in the
built environment, community cohesion, international exchange,
education, healthcare, and the rural economy. For each pound we
receive in grant-aid from Arts Council England we raise £4
from and for the benefit of the sector.
1.3 a-n The Artists Information Company
publications and research of specific interest to this inquiry
are:
— The Code of Practice to the Visual
Arts, published 2003.
— Establishing a charge rate for a
working artist, published 2004.
— Good practice in paying artists,
published 2005.
— The artists' contracts toolkit, published
2004.
— Compass—a tool for professional
practice in HE, published 2003.
— Networking Artists' Networks—Strategic
approaches to artists' co-ordination and collective action, research
and pilot programmes 02—04.
— APD Development Strategy 2004.
2. FACTS ABOUT
LIVING ARTISTS
Our research shows that artists are:
2.1 Estimated at 60,000-90,000 visual artists
in the UK.
2.2 Connected—78% recognise networking
as a core element in their practice.
2.3 Informed—86% of artists accessing
www.a-n.co.uk.
2.4 Professional—48% of artists are
self-employed and 37% have an MA.
2.5 Proactive—32% of artists show
their work internationally.
2.6 41% are more concerned with "CV
development" ie critical endorsement from their peers rather
than purely selling work.
2.7 Between 16-25% of artists are participating
in continuing professional development through local and regional
arts & cultural agencies.
2.8 The majority of professional artists
make their living through a combination of selling their specialist
skills and sales of their art and craft works.
2.9 Average new graduate debt £15-22K.
3. ENVIRONMENT
3.1 The Environment within which artists
work can be broadly defined as being driven by three distinct
approaches: the public sector approach, the private/ commercial
sector approach and the artist-led/ self-managing approach.
3.2 The career paths of artists navigate
across the public, commercial and self-managed sectors throughout
their working lives.
Analysis of artists' jobs and opportunities
since 1989:
— £7 million value of jobs and
opportunities advertised openly through a-n in 2004 an increase
of £3.4 million in a decade.
— Commissions made up 15% of the volume
of opportunities and 40% of the value. The average value of a
commission—usually stated in terms of overall budget rather
than artist's fee—was £19,615, compared with £6,325
in 1999 and £4,204 in 1989. Specific examples range from
South & East Belfast Health and Social Services Trust's healthcare
commissions of £1-£25,000 in value, a £30,000 budget
for a sculpture in Chepstow High Street and £300,000 for
three major commissions organised by the Combined Universities
in Cornwall for new HE buildings.
— 15% are commissions—average
£19,615, mainly "public art".
— 38% are exhibition based—average
under £200 (£504 in 1989).
— 9% are residencies—average
£4,700, mainly community service.
Presentation and Development of art work
3.3 Estimated 2,500 UK public and commercial
galleries.
3.4 Over half of all artists (30,000—45,000)
are part of active networks of peers developing and presenting
their practice, this work is crucial in supporting the quality
and innovation in artists' skills and services; initiatives such
as Networking Artists' Networks have been piloting ways of enhancing
the artistic development of artists at all career stages active
in self-managed networks throughout the UK.
3.5 15,000 artists access continuous professional
development opportunities through the APD a year (www.apd-network.info
). APD is a consortium of over 30 key cultural enterprise, information
and training agencies including a-n Artists Information Company,
Artquest, London, Cultural Enterprise Office, Glasgow, Suffolk
County Council.
3.6 Funding for the support of artists is
as diverse as the work that artists undertake, the Arts Council
England Grants for Artists forms only part of a much wider support
network for the work of living artists with significant new input
responding to changing artists' practices from eg the Jerwood
Foundation, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and NESTA.
What scope exists to promote best practice in
the conduct of financial relationships between artists and art
market professionals?
Recommendations
1. Recognition by government of the self-employed
status of professional artists including action to ensure that
these individuals gain access to resources to participate in to
continuous professional development.
2. Endorsement by government and DCMS supported
agencies of the Code of Practice for the Visual Arts and adoption
of its associated guidance in the form of Contracts and recommended
remuneration scales based on the professional costs and career
stage of artists. To be monitored as a condition of best practice
in funding agreements.
3. Expansion of arts and cultural industries
schemes that make grants to individual artists, managed by specialist
visual arts organisations and artists' networks (rather than through
the Arts Council) with criteria for acceptance based on peer review
and track-record, ensuring that artists gain better access to
time to undertake the research that keeps their work of high-quality,
for the benefit of communities and clients.
4. Acknowledge that any changes in legislation
should recognise of the role of artists in defining their working
environment by involving artists directly in the development of
future policy and initiatives through consultation with artist
networks and specialist agencies who work with artists.
5. Government backing of a new scheme to
encourage a stakeholder pension scheme especially for professional
visual artists, through creating an endowment with funds from
implementation of Artists' Resale Rights.
6. Suitable national support the Networking
artists' networks initiative from a-n that strategically supports
artists' own networks and creative clusters that recognises that
artist networking is part of a wider trend which makes a substantial
contribution to local and regional cultural strategies and create
interfaces between UK, European and international artists' organisations.
7. Government endorsement of national umbrella
bodies including Creative People and the Artists' Professional
Development network that strategically support professional development
initiatives and share and encourage good practice in its delivery.
8. Within the current review of Non-domestic
rates, to ensure that small artists' ventures such as studios,
galleries and crafts retail outlets are not "priced out"
of cities, where they make a vital contribution to vibrancy and
local and regional identity.
February 2005
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