A strategic priority for the Council is to support, sustain and creatively develop artist careers, from emerging careers to established ones.

Over the past 30 years recognition of the cultural, social and economic contribution of artists to Australian society has grown. Sadly, this has not translated into higher incomes for Australia’s artists, relative to other occupations. This research found that artists’ incomes as a whole are not keeping pace with the rest of the workforce.

There is a high level of uncertainty associated with the work of artists.  So most artists do a range of paid work in both arts and non arts related jobs in order to make a living. This research found that less than half of artists income comes from their creative work, with the rest earned through arts related or non arts work. As in many countries, the majority of Australian professional artists do not get huge financial rewards for pursuing their art practice. Rarely do people become professional artists for the money. They are driven by their passion and commitment to art.

Two pieces of research commissioned by the Australia Council for the Arts offer a comprehensive picture of the working lives of Australian artists.

• Do you really expect to get paid? An economic study of professional artists in Australia (‘the artist survey’). This study is the fifth in a series commissioned by the Australia Council and conducted independently by Professor David Throsby from Macquarie University. Anita Zednik was the co-author of this study.
  
  
• What’s your other job? A census analysis of arts employment in Australia (‘the census study’) analyses data from the past three Australian Population Censuses. This study was undertaken by Peter Higgs of the Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) under the leadership of Professor Stuart Cunningham.

Comments

• Stu St Hill 8:42pm on 17 Aug 2010

  I am Chair of the Board of Arts Upper Hunter - a voluntary position. I am also a musician playing in a well respected 6 piece band in the Hunter region. I have a day gig like all the guys but all of us would love to make a living from our life long passion. 25 years ago I left my secure day job to pursue a career in music. I was naive I guess but full of belief and passion in what I was doing. I soon found I needed to find work to support my art. To pay rent, to feed myself. When I applied for unemployment benefits back then and was honest and up front with the then CES, they told me being a musician was not a REAL job and they stopped paying me. It's been a battle ever since - even though I have married, raised a family and have a secure job. It still play, still burn with passion - and the pay is still the same. We used to work as a band for $250 supporting major Australian acts touring through Sydney and Newcastle. Pub gigs paid a little more sometimes or you did a bar deal. I did a gig last Friday night which netted me $50. There were 14 musicians in three acts netting $691 from a bar deal. Just enough to buy a beer and pay for my petrol. I'm no amateur - I'm professionally trained, was a 18 year old Australian cornet champion and have reached critical acclaim. I push as Chair of Arts Upper Hunter to value all our artists - indeed I spend much of my time convincing local governments to pay their annual contributions because art matters to their communities - that it is good for community health. When will this country put a real value on our artistic community? I love being a musician. I love providing entertainment to people, making people smile, feel, dance... I'll never stop because that is who I am, what I am. But wouldn't be nice if it was possible to make even close to a meagre living sufficient to pay my rent, child support, fuel, electricity and food bills. I sincerely understand the plight of the modern day artist... Stu Trumpet

• Wayne Katz 1:01am on 07 Sep 2010

  Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the song in the video, a composition by AMERICAN band the calling. Perhaps using an Australian composition would've been more appropriate considering the subject?

• Linda Marr 4:13pm on 07 Sep 2010

  Hear hear Stu! We must be in the only field of employment where the pay is going down rather than up :( Linda Marr

• Svetlana Zhukova (Australia Council) 9:36am on 09 Sep 2010

  Hi Wayne, the music in the video is a royalty-free track To The Sky we obtained for this video from a stock music website. We wouldn't be able to use the Australian music track and pay adequate fees to the artist, and stock music is an affordable alternative for the promotions like this.

• mark Richards 11:47am on 24 Sep 2010

  We need to implement a system like the Norwegian's. Artists give proof of their work and get financial assistance from the Government. Artist's work long hours on their works, plus day job hours. This is never understood by the public/government. I have one question for Julia Gillard, "What does the Arts really mean for you?" I don't think she knows.

• SEO 12:02am on 11 Oct 2010

  It is sad sometimes to see very talented people not to be able to make enough income by doing what they love. Thank you

• Helen Omand 4:12pm on 11 Oct 2010

  Where to begin? At 35 after performing and creating dance works for 20 years I retrained in psychology and coaching. I saw this as a transition into a new field with the lived experience being one of growing a new skin. Uncomfortable, challenging, stretching. 7 years on I now see it as an extension of my art practice that in fact I cannot extract the artist so deeply embodied in me from what I do today. I do not see it separate from art practice. Its like the wax on and wax off polishing cars when placed in a different context becomes elegant karate moves that make people gasp. What we imagine is what we see. If we see things as separate and distinct then we miss great opportunities, the opportunity of possibility. Isn't that what art invites us to do; to imagine? Imagining our possible selves is an artistic practice just as imagining new combinations of notes, movements, strokes of a brush. Art is bigger than a job. It is a way of being. Helen

• Matthew Dewey 7:43pm on 01 Nov 2010

  Ironically enough, in order to sustain me financially and enable me to continue my arts practice, I work in social security.

• Danielle Clode 11:36am on 18 Nov 2010

  I appreciate that paying for the use of music is expensive, but the fact that the Australian Arts Council can't afford to pay an artist appropriately for their work really says as much about how we value creative work as the reports themselves. I'm sure the researchers, printers, designers etc were all paid appropriately - but the music bit wasn't as important...? That said, this is all great work and very informative. And I think the video is excellent - I'm sure far more people see it than would read the reports.

• Ness 9:01am on 08 Dec 2010

  The video's are all very glossy and informative, great for marketing purposes, but reading the report summaries isn't a bad idea either. The Aust Council for Arts aren't always going to get it right, it is still Govt. initiative and bound by Legislation etc. They like the rest of us can only strive to "Be Excellent". This might be frustrating, but the bodies at the Council probably don't know it's 'broken' till issues are raised with them. In the end, it is just a bunch of humans trying to do something good for Aust Arts & it is part of the human condition that we all make mistakes.