News that arts graduates earn less than
graduates in other subjects might easily be filed under ‘No S*** Sherlock’, but the data described in
this report matters for several reasons. Amongst other things it puts some
perspective on the cultural sector’s more jingoistic use of broader ‘creative
industries’ stats. If we’re so important how come we’re so badly paid? I find the ‘fastest growing sector’ argument frail anyway. Rate of growth doesn't necessarily tell the whole story about potential 'return' per pound or hour invested, does it? Let alone the full value of each unit of growth - are all jobs equal, is every £ of GDP equally welcome? I
wouldn't base an argument for cultural funding on growth rates, especially as
growth for growth’s sake may be more problem than solution.
I’m also interested in the evidence that attending so-called elite
universities leads to higher earnings, which is described, rightly, as ‘yet more
evidence that prestigious institutions should be redoubling efforts to draw in
less affluent students’. It begs an additional question about the recruitment and
reward policies of the cultural sector, where managers – people - make choices
and may, who knows, have an informal league table of universities in mind when
looking at cvs. Is it time, I wonder for not just name-blind recruitment, but 'university-blind' recruitment?
The article also outlines the limitations of the data and
the risks involved in how it might shape policy. As the ever-quotable Dr Dave
O’Brien says ‘the function and purpose of education should not be measured just
in wages.’ The same is true of culture.
This article by Andrew McGettigan looks at the same data and
comes to some similar conclusions. It also considers, though, the potential
impact on funding of Creative Arts and Design subjects in HE, and it’s not a
reassuring read. As he concludes: ‘The LEO indicator light is blinking to tell us that there
is a problem, but it will require some courage to lift the hood. LEO needs to
be corralled and directed productively, away from crude interpretations … The
alternative is that a stroke of an administrative pen or swings in demand could
leave the Creative Arts – and all of us – with a diminished future.’
McGettigan draws attention to calls to move some parts of HE provision into FE – with creative arts and design likely to be targeted. This would
potentially damage universities who are, we should not forget, increasingly
interwoven into the cultural sector at all levels, not just teaching,
especially in places where they are big employers, developers and civic
players. He adds ‘Lobbying strategies need to do more than point to the size of
the creative industries, since those £80 billion figures bandied about include
software design, advertising and a range of large cultural organisations that
do not predominantly fill their posts with Creative Arts graduates.’
One of the limitations of the LEO data is the exclusion of
self-employed graduates, although this may not make the picture much more rosy.
The RSA has just published a really interesting paper on the way self-employed
people are increasingly coming together to help each other – often providing
things other look to the state for, of course, such as sick pay, so this is not
always, perhaps, a simple ‘good thing’. Coming together to create local or
sectoral ways to take risk out of being ill or late payments could be ever more
important as more people choose or are pushed into self-employment. My own
experience of this now is very different from when I freelanced in my late
twenties-early 30s, a much ‘riskier’ time of life in many ways. I don’t think
that’s because I’m better or cleverer than I was then, though, and greater
mutuality would have helped even more then than it might now.
4. NEW IRISH INITIATIVE ACKNOWLEDGES PROFESSIONAL STATUS OF ARTISTS APPLYING FOR JOBSEEKERS ALLOWANCE
Meanwhile, over in Ireland, the government has worked with
writers’ and artists’ organisations to recognise that ‘actively looking for
employment’ includes artists who are applying for commissions, exhibitions,
curatorial visits, outreach work and other related opportunities, when people
are seeking social welfare. As noted, it’s not a panacea, and looks limited in scope, but it at least recognises the needs and status of individuals.
This blog from 2014 marked the publication of The Art of Living
Dangerously, which I co-wrote with Shelagh Wright, then of Mission Models
Money, Natalie Querol from Exchange/The Empty Space, and Sarah Colston then of
nef. The themes of sustaining livelihoods, pooling risk and utilising space
seem even more relevant now, as does the framework shown in the illustration at
the top of this post.
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