The Intersection of Economics and the
Arts
By Patrick Tucker
The artists of the future will need to create more than just art.
To be financially self-sustaining, painters, dancers, actors, and all
other artists need to straddle the many different social spheres and
funding sources that comprise the "art world." In other words, the role of the
artist in the twenty-first century is to create not only art but the
market for art as well.
For artists, that means they must be attuned to market forces, know
how to navigate the frenetic nonprofit sector, and be able to fulfill a
wide array of roles in their communities while creating meaningful and
enduring works of art. Most working artists split their time among the
various sectors fairly evenly, according to a report from University of
Minnesota. Roughly 39% spend most of
their arts time in the commercial sector, and 42% engage in part-time
commercial work. Only 19% of the artists surveyed did no commercial work
at all. Surprisingly, many of the artists reported that if money were
not an issue they would continue to create commercial art at least part
of the time, though they would devote more time to community arts
activities as well. While the trends offer encouragement, the report's
authors suggest that barriers to crossover persist.
One arts organization working to overcome these barriers is the New
York–based Juilliard School. In partnership with Carnegie Hall and the
Weill Music Institute, Juilliard has launched a new fellowship program
called "The Academy," intended to help talented graduates balance the
cultivation of their craft with teaching and community outreach.
"The
so-called reclusive artist of fifty or sixty years ago, the Horowitzes
who showed up, played their concert and then left, although
extraordinary artists, are gone. The world has changed a great deal,
especially in America,"
says Joseph W. Polisi, president of the Juilliard School. We need musicians, actors and dancers who can be good and
effective representatives for their art or community and take advantage
of various funding sources. That's what the goal of this is, to provide
an environment for the fellows of The Academy to really hear what their
colleagues have to say, to provide the tools for them to be articulate
spokespersons for the arts in schools and with school boards, etc. and
to really give them a sense of their own entrepreneurial abilities."
Young artists fresh from graduate school probably won't have the support
systems many of their predecessors enjoyed. According to the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics, demand in the arts is expected to grow as fast as
for all other occupations through 2014, but the competition for both
salaried and freelance jobs will intensify as talented aspiring artists
with master of fine arts degrees will vastly outnumber lucrative
openings for painters, dancers, and musicians.
"These
musicians have to have a sense of their own future, of their own ability
to create their own environment, not only gainful employment but the
possibility of showing communities why the arts are important to that
specific community. We want the artists in these orchestras to become so
important to the people in these communities that it becomes unthinkable
to the members of the community to get rid of the orchestra,"
Polisi says.
Ensuring the long-term survivability of the arts will require more
than teaching musicians, painters, or writers how to adapt to difficult
economic realities. Communities, private employers, and governmental
officials need to recognize the important role that creative
professionals play in public life. Failure to do so would have not only
cultural but also economic consequences.
"Artistic creativity generates public value far beyond the modest
sums spent on it by government, nonprofits, or markets," the University
of Minnesota report states. "A generation of arts impact studies, public
value of the arts research, findings on the relationship between the
arts and intelligence, and work on the artistic dividend has documented
these contributions time and again."
Source: Crossover: How Artists Build Careers Across
Commercial, Nonprofit and Community by Ann Markusen et al. The
Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota.
Available at www.hhh.umn.edu/projects/prie.
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