We live in turbulent times. In recent years, the UK economy has been hammered by both Brexit and the pandemic, against a backdrop of inflation and war.

However, the global art market has remained remarkably resilient, and is currently valued at $65 billion. The UK art market is the third largest in the world, after the US and China, and is valued at $10.9 billion.¹

Not that you would know it if you were an artist working in the UK today.

The average amount of money that artists in England earn from their art practice is just £6000 per year. Only 7% of visual artists earn more than £20,000 per annum from their practice, while just 2% earn over £50,000.²

For comparison, the UK’s median annual salary in 2023 was £37,000.³

In fact, degrees in “design, creative and performance arts” have the lowest entry level salary of any degree subject,⁴ while Fine Art graduates specifically have the fourth lowest salaries out of all graduates after 5 years.⁵

Staggeringly, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, those who graduate with degrees in the creative arts actually earn less money than those who choose not to go to university at all.⁶

Around 65,000 students enrol to study design, creative and performance arts in the UK each year,⁷ paying fees of almost £28,000 to do so – or, in some cases, over £100,000 for overseas students.^8,9,10

However, it’s clear that the vast majority of those students are being condemned to a life of poverty and squalor, with the percentage of arts graduates working in “retail, catering, waiting and bar staff” being higher than those working in the arts sector.¹¹

At the same time, workers in the creative sector are under threat from new technologies like never before. AI threatens to take away work from artists, designers, writers, musicians and other creatives in the coming decades, and has already thrown up new questions and legal issues surrounding licensing and copyright.

In all likelihood, AI technology represents the thin end of the wedge. Many of the other technologies associated with the fourth industrial revolution are likely to dramatically change the economic landscape for creatives, particularly:

• Virtual and augmented reality
• The metaverse
• 3D printing / scanning
• Smart materials
• Wearables / the internet-of-things
• Biometric technology
• Nanotechnology

All of these present both risks and opportunities to artists and other creative professionals.

However, many workers in the creative industries are already in an economically precarious situation. 47% of creative workers are freelancers, compared to 15% of workers across the workforce as a whole.¹² This increases to 70% for visual artists specifically.¹³ The creative industries also employ significantly higher numbers of remote workers than other sectors.

These workers face a unique set of challenges, including:

• Inconsistent hours and income
• Lack of sick pay or holiday pay
• Social isolation of lone working
• Access to suitable workspace and facilities
• Access to professional networks and opportunities

It’s clear that we live in a time of change. It’s equally clear that change is badly needed.

If we wish to improve the currently abysmal economic outlook for artists and other creative workers in the UK, we cannot simply bury our heads in the sand and continue making, teaching and exhibiting art as we have done in the past.

We need an entirely new approach – one which emphasises commercial viability and acknowledges the economic realities of the 21^st century.

Find out more by clicking on the image below:

References

1. McAndrew, Clare (2024). The Art Market 2024. Art Basel and UBS. https://theartmarket.artbasel.com/download/The-Art-Basel-and-UBS-Art-Market-Report-2024.pdf (retrieved 24^th September 2024). ↩︎
2. TBR (2018). Livelihoods of Visual Artists – Summary Report. Arts Council England. https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/livelihoods-visual-artists-report (retrieved 17^th March 2024). ↩︎
3. Office for National Statistics (2023). Employee Earnings in the UK: 2023. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2023 (retrieved 17^th March 2024). ↩︎
4. Oxford Learning College (2022). The UK Degrees With The Best Earning Potential. https://www.oxfordcollege.ac/news/the-uk-degrees-with-the-best-earning-potential/ (retrieved 17^th March 2024). ↩︎
5. Adzuna (2023). The Top 10 Most Valuable Degrees. https://www.adzuna.co.uk/blog/the-top-10-most-valuable-degrees/ (retrieved 17^th March 2024). ↩︎
6. Britton, Jack et al. (2020). The Impact of Undergraduate Degrees on Lifetime Earnings. Institute for Fiscal Studies. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/undergraduate-degrees-lifetime-labour-market-returns (retrieved 17^th March 2024). ↩︎
7. Oxford Learning College (2022) ↩︎
8. Central Saint Martins (2024). BA (Hons) Fine Art. https://www.arts.ac.uk/subjects/fine-art/undergraduate/ba-hons-fine-art-csm (retrieved 17^th March 2024). ↩︎
9. Slade School of Fine Art (2024). BA Fine Art. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/slade/study/ba/ (retrieved 17^th March 2024). ↩︎
10. Goldsmiths, University of London (2024). BA (Hons) Fine Art. https://www.gold.ac.uk/ug/ba-fine-art/ (retrieved 17^th March 2024). ↩︎
11. Prospects Luminate (2023). What Do Graduates Do? Insights and Analysis from the UK’s Largest Higher Education Survey. https://luminate.prospects.ac.uk/what-do-creative-arts-graduates-do (retrieved 17^th March 2024). ↩︎
12. Easton, Eliza & Cauldwell-French, Evy (2017). Creative Freelancers. Creative Industries Federation. https://www.creativeindustriesfederation.com/sites/default/files/2017-07/Creative%20Freelancers%201.0.pdf (retrieved 17^th September 2024). ↩︎
13. DACS (2024). Welcome to a New Era: Supporting the UK’s Visual Artists. https://www.dacs.org.uk/news-events/new-labour-government-support-for-visual-artists (retrieved 17^th September 2024). ↩︎