Friday, February 05, 2016
The Self-Employed Artist Trying to Survive in the Free Market
www.huffingtonpost.com: An article I wrote last year entitled "What Do Opera Singers Actually Get Paid" has been making the rounds again on social media lately. The questions and problems posed by this article are ongoing, so seeing the article resurface gave me the impetus to want to continue the discussion. That, and the fact that I just re-binge-watched Mozart in the Jungle after it won big at the Golden Globes. Having lived for years in the artist filled apartment building featured prominently in the memoir by the oboist and author Blair Tindall on which the series was based, I had always been fascinated with both the book and the series. In re-watching, I was particularly appreciative of the fact that the series creators chose to focus on the huge challenges of donors and arts funding (they even frequently feature the ubiquitous donor parties and dinners), versus the amount of dedication and the sheer practice hours musicians spend on their craft.
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2 comments:
This article makes an excellent point about the ‘pay-artists-nothing’ trend that seems to have cropped up in the last century and it’s a very interesting conundrum. People have been fighting for worker’s rights since there were rights to be had, and mostly (unless you were a rich corporate CEO or something) people side with the workers. If you were to ask random people on the street, nine times out of ten they would say they agree that people deserve decent pay and benefits if they are working. Yet when it comes to art, that mindset immediately disappears. We see it happen all of the time, with “I can pay you in experience” or “It’s an internship, no pay”. The art world has always struggled to make a living, hence the stereotype of the ‘starving artist’. But if something like this were happening in another industry, people would be outraged, and coming to the support of the workers. I hope it is only a matter of public awareness, and something that will change in the near future.
There is a particular kind of catch-22 involved in discussing the problematic dearth of opportunities for artists. Artists want to create opportunities for themselves, but they can not necessarily accomplish that without the support of an audience. A limited number of "safe" opportunities for artists are created, as works that appeal to the "masses" and widest audience are produced. Subsequently, new artists and those who seek to produce new works are marginalized. Those who know the true value of new and exploratory works are the artists themselves, as they are the ones who have been educated in the arts. A hyper-redundant and increasingly exclusive process.
The author brings up several key, and practical issues to think about. In a field where risks are an inherent and intrinsic part of the process, things like health insurance and reliable medical care are imperative. While some of the problems mentioned have fairly accessible solutions, the process of supporting oneself as a "self employed" artist should maybe have more regularity, and definite shape.
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