Written evidence submitted by Artists
Interaction and Representation (AIR) (arts 43)
Artists Interaction and Representation (AIR)
is pleased to submit to the Committee on Culture, Media and Sport's
Inquiry into the Funding of arts and heritage. We would welcome
the opportunity to present evidence in person to the Committee
in due course.
1. ABOUT
AIR
1.1 AIR was established in 2007 as a membership
body for practising visual and applied artists. With over 15,000
members, AIR seeks to promote the central role of the artist within
a diverse and sustainable cultural landscape. As the voice of
visual and applied artists, AIR identifies and explores issues
that impact on artists' practice, and campaigns for artistic,
legislative and economic measures that enhance artists' working
lives and their professional status.
1.2 Whilst AIR is not publicly funded, its
members' practice is enabled through a mixture of public, private
and educational financial sources. This submission aims to highlight
the circumstances faced by its members by reduction in public
funding whilst suggesting alternative distribution methods.
2. WHAT
IMPACT RECENT
AND FUTURE
SPENDING CUTS
FROM CENTRAL
AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENT WILL
HAVE ON
THE ARTS
AND HERITAGE
AT THE
NATIONAL AND
LOCAL LEVEL
2.1 Government investment through the Arts
Council has traditionally provided support programmes for artists
and institutions, but recent cuts are jeopardising the ability
of the creative industries to play the leadership role that the
world clearly expects them to play. The proposed cuts will have
a significant impact on the sector which will be more costly to
the economy than the minimal amount of money that will be saved
if they are implemented. Jobs will be lost, institutions will
close their doors, and the UK will be in danger of losing its
position at the forefront as a destination for culture and tourism.
2.2 While the arts community accepts that
cuts are inevitable across all levels of society, AIR asserts
that the proposed cuts will create a huge economic crisis for
artists in particular, who are a largely self-employed sector
that relies on access to multiple sources of income and finance
to sustain their own career and business development, and community
engagement. Seventy-two percent of visual artists are largely
self-employed, verses the average self-employment in the creative
industries of 41%.
2.3 Most artists manage several jobs on
short-term contracts to support their artistic practice, and even
then, many will struggle. This distracts energies from creative
pursuits that provide millions in economic benefits to Britain's
economy and countless spin-off and social benefits.
2.4 Artists' livelihoods are inherently
resilient as they operate as `micro businesses'. Many visual art
professionals are self-employed with portfolio careers in education,
regeneration, the health service or within the voluntary sector,
for example. A 25% cut in two separate areas of public expenditure
may quickly amount to a drastic reduction in paid work for a self-employed
artist. Artists will likely continue to make work with less public
support. However, many small cuts from different sources lead
to a very big wound, to the detriment of the communities and clients
their work serves. Furthermore, the lack of savings and pension
funds[19]
is greater amongst artists than in the workforce as a whole.
2.5 Arts funding improves artists' economic
potential in a multitude of ways. Employing their transferrable
skills, artists often work at exhibition venues as employees,
where staff redundancy and museum closures are now likely. Artists
may also receive public grants to create new work to share with
and engage their community, and funding levels to individuals
are already low.
2.6 Artists exhibit work in galleries and
festivals, and if galleries are not forced to close through the
proposed cuts, they will undoubtedly reduce their exhibitions
and associated programmes. This means fewer opportunities for
artists to show and sell their work, and for the public to enjoy
or buy works of art and participate in gallery education programmes.
Based on previous research, it can be estimated that the average
artist achieves 15,000 direct visitors to their projects and exhibitions
annually, and thus artists play a major role in audience development.
2.7 Before the latest cuts were announced,
openly-advertised opportunities for artists had already begun
to decline. The average value of a paid opportunity for artists
has reduced by 50% since 2007.[20]
Recent data indicates that the value of employment opportunities
for professional artists has already declined by 27%, when compared
with pre-recession data from 2007. It is anticipated that one
in six posts in universities will be lost—a worrying figure
as universities are the "top employers" of visual artists
and play a key role in training the next generation of artists.
2.8 While arts organisations in England
were able to appeal in 2009-10 for additional funding through
Sustain, due to the economic downturn, grants to artists were
not similarly enhanced. Artists, as sole traders, received no
additional governmental support at a time when they needed it
most. It seems that artists' social enterprises are not being
valued.
2.9 A sustainable investment in the arts
and heritage sector will improve Britain's economic recovery.
There is considerable data supporting the value of the cultural
economy in the UK. For every £1 that is invested, £2
is returned to the greater economy. From a purely economic standpoint,
it does not make good financial sense to cut programmes that double
the return on investment, and which cost so little to begin with.
The arts budget costs a mere 17p per person/week. British tourism
relies heavily on arts and culture, valued at £86 billion
in 2007, or 3.7% of the GDP. It also directly employed 1.4 million
people. Between 1997 and 2006 the creative economy grew faster
than any other sector.[21]
3. WHAT
ARTS ORGANISATIONS
CAN DO
TO WORK
MORE CLOSELY
TOGETHER IN
ORDER TO
REDUCE DUPLICATION
OF EFFORT
AND TO
MAKE ECONOMIES
OF SCALE
3.1 The arts sustain and inspire a population
in difficult times. Communities are able to attract and retain
skilled workers whose commitment to place and sense of quality
of life in their community help build vibrant towns and cities.
The social benefits of participation in the arts include personal
development, social cohesion, community empowerment, local image
and identity, enhanced imagination and vision, and health and
well being. The arts express the British values of diversity,
tolerance and multiculturalism. They are a critical building block
as our children build shared citizenship and understand one another.
The benefits of arts programmes for young people also include
improved communication, literacy and numeracy skills.
3.2 The visual arts community has already
demonstrated the value of working more closely together, in order
to reduce duplication and strengthen partnerships. In particular,
AIR partners with Artelier (Artquest), DACS, and with regional
networks of artists. AIR is an accredited collecting society for
DACS Payback and supports the DACS campaign for artists' resale
rights to be extended to the estates of deceased artists. AIR
is also a member of the European Council of Artists, participating
in pan-European discussions and contributing to campaigns on legislative
and economic change for the benefit of practitioners.
3.3 We are convening a meeting of national
artists' organisations in September, to explore creative and flexible
ways in which we might work together for the benefit of our collective
members, minimising any duplication and maximising our visibility.
The goal is to identify shared ambitions as well as to highlight
uniqueness and best practice. We feel it is timely in the current
environment for the arts to envision new and different ways to
collaborate, and make the very best use of our combined knowledge
and expertise.
3.4 Artists present a model for a networked
practice that could be more widely adopted across the sector.
75% of AIR members are active within artists' networks and cite
communication and exchange with like-minded people as an important
part of pursuing a professional practice. The recently-launched
AIR Activists programme is designed through access to knowledge
and training to inform and empower very many artists to "speak
for themselves". It provides a platform for artists to assert
themselves in local and regional arts decision-making as well
as in national arenas in which arts and cultural policy is formed.
4. WHETHER
THE CURRENT
SYSTEM AND
STRUCTURE OF
FUNDING DISTRIBUTION
IS THE
RIGHT ONE
4.1 Research shows that funds awarded to
an artist are returned directly to their practice, despite the
assumption that funding to individuals is more "risky"
because their actions are not governed by an accountability structure
(as with non-profit/charitable organisations). Seventy-two percent
of artists are self employed[22]
and tend to spend 25% more time on a project than they have estimated
in a proposal or application, usually because this enables them
to push their practice further than they might do on the funds
available. This additional time is `sponsored' by the artist.
It is important to note that the success rate for artists' funding
applications is low, with as little as one in 10 being realised.
4.2 Support to artists works well when it
is centred and personalised to their practice and career development.
Access to financing that is not attached to audience participation
is a vital part of moving from being an emerging to mid-career
artist, and in achieving financial viability. Where funding is
tied tightly into specific expectations and requires the outcomes
from a funded period to be articulated prior to the research or
project taking place, it undermines the need for experimentation
and risk that is inherent within artists' practice, and a prerequisite
for innovation.
4.3 It is demonstrated that peer-led funding
schemes often work best for artists, as they automatically encompass
the critique and exchange that assists to improve the quality
of art, and raise artists' aspirations for their practice. The
impact of funding to an individual artist is shared across their
networks and contacts, and thus "a small amount of money
goes a long way". Funding to groups of artists and networks
for self-determined development, such as exhibitions and performances,
have been proven to assist not only in the artist's own development
but in widening access to and understanding of the arts within
peer networks, and across the matrix of "audiences"
that an artist reaches within a portfolio practice.
4.4 The value of awards and fellowships
to artists has dropped 40% since 2007,[23]
due to the impact of the recession on public and charitable funds.
Awards are crucial to secure the professional development that
improves their work and aids their career development. They recognise
the achievement of local artists in our community, and celebrate
their contributions to society through their work, and allow citizens
to celebrate with them.
4.5 An alternative method of providing arts
funding to artists would be to devolve funding to national and
regional expert and peer organisations. Clarity of expectation
for such devolved funding would be essential, and systems would
need to be scalable, with online reporting, tracking and analysis
to ease artists' administration time and fast feedback. AIR would
advocate for such developments, informed by effective programmes
such as the artist-led NAN initiative[24]
that has successfully distributed peer-reviewed funds to artists
through networks since 2004. Successful schemes have also been
run by Live Art Development Agency, Artsadmin, Wysing Arts (Escalator)
and artists' studio groups.
5. WHAT
IMPACT RECENT
CHANGES TO
THE DISTRIBUTION
OF NATIONAL
LOTTERY FUNDS
WILL HAVE
ON ARTS
AND HERITAGE
ORGANISATIONS.
No comment as this is not AIR's particular area
of knowledge
6. Whether policy guidelines for National
Lottery funding need to be revised
No comment as this is not AIR's particular area
of knowledge.
7. The impact of recent changes to the DCMS's
arm's length bodies—in particular to the abolition of the
UK Film Council and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
No comment as this is not AIR's particular area
of knowledge.
8. Whether businesses and philanthropists
can play a long-term role in funding the arts at a national and
local level.
8.1 Much has been said about the search
for private investment to make up the shortfall in public funding.
While the sector is actively looking into increasing funding from
private and corporate support, it becomes that much more difficult
to achieve if it is not adequately matched by public funding.
Private funding for the arts is already higher than public support,
which exacerbates an imbalance of support for infrastructures.
It has been said that for every £1 that the Arts Council
England invests, an additional £2 is generated from private
and commercial sources, totalling £3 income.[25]
This demonstrates their existing commitment to arts funding, but
if there is decreased investment in public funding, it does not
inspire the trust of private investors, who may now be similarly
strapped for additional funds.
8.2 Public funding to artists to carry out
their projects is spent within and therefore directly benefits
a local economy. Case studies show that grant investment into
artists' collaborations and initiatives is matched and extended
by up to 60% through additional resources such as sponsorship,
funds from charitable trusts, in-kind support and various categories
of earned income.
NOTE: Submission
researched and compiled for AIR by April Britski, Director of
CARFAC (Canadian Artists' Representation/Le Front des artists
canadiens, www.carfac.ca) whilst on secondment to AIR, supporting
implementation of its development and representation strategies.
It is presented on behalf of the AIR Advisory Group (Council)
of artists.
September 2010
19 Findings from the Pensions for Artists research
showed that 70% of artists do not have a pension, compared to
the UK working population where 44% do not have a pension. Back
20
Data provided by a-n The Artists Information Company's surveys
since 1989 of openly-advertised jobs and opportunities and employment
prospects for artists. Back
21
Statistical data provided by ACE: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/about-us/why-arts-matter/ Back
22
AIR survey 2009. Back
23
Artwork survey 2009, a-n The Artists Information Company www.a-n.co.uk Back
24
http://www.a-n.co.uk/nan-evaluation reports available on request. Back
25
Statistical data provided by ACE: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/about-us/why-arts-matter/ Back
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