A new study, conducted by London-based charity Acme, has revealed that one in three artists in the UK doubt they will be able to work professionally in five years’ time.
Acme work to provide affordable studios to artists in the UK, and their survey reveals the extent of the financial predicament gripping Britain’s artists. All of the respondents use Acme to rent studio space, and the charity has worked with the likes of Grayson Perry and Hew Locke during its 50 years of work. On top of questions over long-term viability, 40 per cent said they cannot currently afford to contribute to a pension scheme or save any money. Only 12 per cent said that professionally practising art was their sole source of income, and of all the surveyed artists, professional practice represented just 33 per cent of the total income.
Read More: David Hockney annual exhibition launched by Phillips in London
Titled The Acme Artist Tenant Survey, the study spoke to 226 artists and was conducted between November 2021 and April 2022. The full report will be released tomorrow, 13 July. “To be a practicing artist in the UK is to live daily with problems of survival,” David Panton, the founder of Acme, said in a statement. “The financial, practical and intellectual challenges artists face mean that they must constantly find solutions—and, increasingly, justification—for a way of life which may seem to run counter to the rest of society,” Panton continued.
Acme work to provide affordable studios to artists in the UK, and their survey reveals the extent of the financial predicament gripping Britain’s artists. All of the respondents use Acme to rent studio space, and the charity has worked with the likes of Grayson Perry and Hew Locke during its 50 years of work. On top of questions over long-term viability, 40 per cent said they cannot currently afford to contribute to a pension scheme or save any money. Only 12 per cent said that professionally practising art was their sole source of income, and of all the surveyed artists, professional practice represented just 33 per cent of the total income.
Read More: David Hockney annual exhibition launched by Phillips in London
Titled The Acme Artist Tenant Survey, the study spoke to 226 artists and was conducted between November 2021 and April 2022. The full report will be released tomorrow, 13 July. “To be a practicing artist in the UK is to live daily with problems of survival,” David Panton, the founder of Acme, said in a statement. “The financial, practical and intellectual challenges artists face mean that they must constantly find solutions—and, increasingly, justification—for a way of life which may seem to run counter to the rest of society,” Panton continued.
