It has been eight years since Macquarie University economist David Throsby last reported on the financial status of artists for the Australia Council and found a third of them living below the poverty line. Based on 2006 census data, Throsby's latest report (the fifth in the series) on the topic Do you really expect to get paid?, concludes that the income gap between artists and the general workforce has widened.
Throsby says Australia's artists are adapting to changing circumstances by mixing up their work with arts-related work in occupations such as advertising or online development, seeing their working life made up of short-term engagements rather than a "traditional linear trajectory beginning with training, passing through an emerging phase, arriving at establishment and continuing with a life devoted exclusively to a core creative practice".
The numbers game:
The average income of artists is well below the average wage - just $37,000 compared with $43,400 and the gap is widening.
16% of artists earn less than $10,000 a year directly from their art, although 5% earn more than $100,000.
A third to half of Australia's artists put their skills to use in other industries.
Arts bureaucrats and administrators have a higher and more secure income than artists.
16% of artists earn less than $10,000 a year directly from their art, although 5% earn more than $100,000.
A third to half of Australia's artists put their skills to use in other industries.
Arts bureaucrats and administrators have a higher and more secure income than artists.
You can read an article on the Throsby report here.
Image: funding by art form delivered by the Australia Council 2006 - 2007
