For the love not the money

AUSTRALIA’S artists, musicians and actors are continuing to struggle fi nancially, earn- ing a median income of just $35,900 a year, research by a QUT professor has found. Pro- fessor Stuart Cunningham, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) based at QUT, said they also used their talents in creative jobs outside the arts sector and were a valuable resource for a vibrant economy.Professor Cunningham said for artistic creativity and excellence to fl ourish in Australia, the nation’s artists must be supported.CCI’s latest research “What’s your job?”, based on analysis of the last three Australian censuses and undertaken for the Australia Council for the Arts, revealed while
artists’ median income was $35,900 a year, including arts and non-arts related work, 16 per cent earned less than $10,000 and only fi ve per cent earn more than $100,000. Profes- sor Cunningham said the research showed artists were doing all they could to support themselves in their work, and demonstrated the highly fl exible nature of arts work.

“Sole practitioners make up over 50 per cent of employment in artist occupations,” Profes- sor Cunningham said.“This is fi ve times the rate of the Australian workforce as a whole, in which only 10 per cent are not employees. “The arts also have a much higher percentage of workers in part-time employment (44 per cent) compared to the workforce as a whole (32 per cent). “The performing arts have a particularly high percentage in part-time em- ployment, typifi ed by instrumental musicians, where 69 percent of people reported their employment basis as part-time.“This provides clear evidence of the need for Australia to balance support for individual artists relative ecnedive – snoitasinagro stra egral otwhich, I am pleased to say, is being acted upon by the Australia Council.”Professor Cunningham said an aspect of creative employment which was often neglected or misunderstood was that artists were using their talents outside the arts industries.A total of 12,370 artists had jobs in other sectors compared with 11,550 who only worked in the arts sector.