A national survey released March 30 by the Art Gallery of York University reports that Canadian visual artists are dismally underpaid.\n<\/p>\n
The report, "Waging Culture: The Socio-economic Status of Canadian Visual Artists", is the first national survey of Canadian visual artists since Statistics Canada’s 1993 Cultural Labour Force Survey. <\/p>\n
Unlike studies that use only census data, the study analyzes both the sources of revenue for artists and their practice expenses. In 2007, the typical artist’s income, from all sources, was $20,000, significantly less than the average Canadian income of $26,850. Only 43.6 per cent of visual artists made any money at all from their studio practice.<\/p>\n
“In 2007, the typical artist’s studio practice actually lost $556,” says Michael Maranda, assistant curator at the Art Gallery of York University. “When you look at it this way, it’s quite dismal.”<\/span><\/p>\n Worse still, says Maranda, there’s a huge disconnect between artists’ earnings and their level of education. “Canadian visual artists average more than six years of postsecondary education,” he says. “But we actually found that the more education they possess, the less they actually earn in terms of practice-based revenue. On the plus side, higher education for artists does equal significant increases in the amount of compensation from secondary employment.”<\/p>\n According to the study, there are between 22,500 and 27,800 visual artists in Canada. Their average age is 43, with 80 per cent practising professionally before age 35. <\/p>\n Compared to the national total labour force, artists are more likely to be female, anglophone, in a relationship and born Canadian, and less likely to be members of a visible minority. <\/p>\n Report highlights:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/li>\n The final report is available in PDF form on the Waging Culture<\/a> Web site. For more information, e-mail Michael Mranda at wagingculture@theAGYUisOutThere.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Visual artists in Canada average more than six years of postsecondary education and yet their income is significantly less than the average Canadian income...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"yfileauthor":[],"qualifier":[],"yfile-author":[],"tags-to-show":[],"workflow":[],"class_list":["post-12339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"acf":{"internal_publish_date":null,"original_image":null},"yoast_head":"\n\n