News

Artists live in poverty

New Australia Council for the Arts survey finds

3 December 2003

THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS has just released a new survey of the economic circumstances of practising professional Australian artists — Don't give up your day job — which reveals a sobering reality: half of the 1063 respondents earned less than $7,300 from their art in a year. Only a quarter worked principally at their artistic occupation and most were forced to work two or three jobs. Although the median income for artists was $30,000, one in three would regularly earn less than the poverty line.

The report also shows that while the income of other professions and occupations has grown since the 1980s, the income of artists has remained the same.

“Australian artists are forced to work two or three jobs, in may cases non-arts related jobs such as telemarketing, to make a living,’ said Australia Council Chair, David Gonski AO.

“This impacts on artists directly but also on society in general. We have a huge capacity to have a much larger arts and cultural scene and we just aren’t using it. Artists would create more plays, artworks, novels and performances if the income they received for their art was even marginally increased.”

Don’t give up your day job, by David Throsby and Virginia Hollister, is the fourth in a series of surveys carried out over the past twenty years at Macquarie University, with funding from the Australia Council.

The report reveals that of Australia’s estimated 45,000 practising professional artists, about 26% live in regional, rural or remote areas. Craft practitioners, visual artists and CCD workers are more strongly represented in the regions, with actors, dancers and musicians most likely to stick to the cities, where arts venues and facilities are concentrated.

Regional artists are much less likely to be working as employees in their principal artistic occupation than their city counterparts, with most working on a self-employed or freelance basis. They are also more likely to have experienced a period of unemployment — and for much longer periods, with three-quarters of regional artists unemployed for a year or more and 15% falling into the seriously long-term unemployed category.

And in more bad news for the regions, the report reveals significantly lower incomes across the board for artists in regional areas — for creative work, arts-related work and non-arts work.

Don’t give up your day job offers vital data for informed cultural policy development in Australia and is a clear signal of the need for improved funding, education and business management skills for artists.

Don't give up your day job is available for download in PDF from the Australia Council for the Arts website here.