Art Graduate Study -English Summary

for the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

by Artist and cand. phil. Jens Otto Hansen.

The purpose of this study is to examine the employment situation of painters who have been admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. The study also examines the artists' own reading of and satisfaction with their situation in order to clarify the connection between the artists' employment status and their satisfaction with their situation.

The study is organized as a questionnaire study for painters who were admitted to the Academy during the period from 1965 to 1991. A total of 632 students were admitted in this period. Of these, the addresses of 489 persons were found, corresponding to 77 per cent. Most of the remaining persons are probably not artistically active. Of the 489 persons who received the questionnaire, 265 responded. This gives a response rate of 54. Respondents who according to themselves are not artistically creative and ambitious and attended the Academy for less than four years were subsequently filtered out. Accordingly, the final data set used in the report consists of 231 respondents.

The painters may face different employment situations involving different types of income. Some employment situations are more attractive to painters than others. To an artist, being self-employed must be most attractive, and that is probably what most of them want to be.

All the artists who are not self-employed must be expected to have self-employment as a long-term goal if they want to live by their art. On the basis of two criteria, ie the extent to which:

• Individual time administration and flexibility are possible

• There are no limitations to the earnings and savings possibilities

It is hypothesized whether the different employment situations are artistically positive, artistically partly negative or artistically negative.

Employment situations expected to be artistically positive, i.e. self-employed artists, privately sponsored artists and holders of scholarships, apply to a total of 26 per cent of the respondents.

Employment situations expected to be artistically partly negative, i.e. salary earners, pensioners/early retired people and artists dependent on their spouses, apply to a total of 45 per cent of the respondents. Finally, employment situations expected to be artistically negative, i.e. unemployed and recipients of cash assistance, apply to 21 per cent. Students make up 5.6 per cent.

65 per cent replied, however, that they had income from more than one employment situation in 1997. Most respondents specified self-employed as their secondary employment. Salary earner is the second-most important employment.

It is interesting that about 61 per cent of the self-employed artists are also employed as salary earners, and that about 82 per cent of the salary earners are also self-employed. Obviously, this means that the demarcation lines between respondents in the expected positive and partly negative employment situations are not very sharp.

Besides, unemployed, recipients of cash assistance and pensioners/early retired people to a large extent combine their transfer income with income from other types of employment situations - either from self-employment, salary earning jobs, spouse, private sponsors or scholarships.

The study demonstrates no significant connection between sex and employment status or between employment status and whether the artist has completed supplementary studies at the Academy of Fine Arts or not. However, it reveals a significant connection between employment status and year group. In the year groups of 1965-73, the vast majority of the respondents are in the expected artistically positive or partly negative employment situations.

The year groups of 1974-82 comprise a few more in the expected artistically negative employment situations, and the youngest year groups of 1983-91 comprise most respondents in the expected artistically negative employment situations. This indicates that respondents who do not in the course of time succeed as artists obtain other employment. There is also a significant connection between employment status and organizational affiliation. Relatively, there are more unorganized respondents in the expected artistically negative employment situations, whereas members of the Association of Artists (Kunstnersamfundet) and respondents who are members of several organizations count relatively most respondents in the expected artistically positive employment situations. Similarly, there is a significant connection between year group and organizational affiliation.

Generally speaking, all respondents have expenses related to their art, whereas 73 per cent have had income from their art. If the respondents' employment status is seen in relation to the question whether they have had income from their art, there is a significant connection. All respondents, except one, in the expected artistically positive employment situations have had income from their art. In the expected artistically partly negative employment situations about two thirds have had income from their art, whereas the respondents in the expected artistically partly negative employment situations count an equal number of artists who have had and who have not had income from their art. These results may help confirm the hypotheses advanced about the different employment situations.

Other things being equal, there is still a relatively large number of artists in the expected artistically partly negative employment situations who have had income from their art.

The questionnaire poses several questions aimed at examining the significance of the employment situation to the artistic activities of the respondent in question. The responses to these questions may help confirm or deny the hypotheses about it being more artistically positive to be in some employment situations than others.

• 45 per cent confirmed that their 1997 income types hampered their roleas artist.

• 40.7 per cent confirmed that their 1997 income types hampered their establishment of a financial situation enabling art production.

• 24.2 per cent confirmed that their 1997 income types hampered their utilization of smaller grants/scholarships for artistic activities.

• 33.3 per cent confirmed that their 1997 income types hampered their professional exhibition activities.

• 41.1 per cent confirmed that their 1997 income types hampered their professional travel activities.

• 26 per cent confirmed that their 1997 income types hampered their utilization of the tax relief possibilities related to their artistic activities.

There is a significant connection between employment status and the response to these six questions, in that respondents in the expected artistically negative employment categories to a larger degree answered in the affirmative. The responses thus point in the expected direction. This indicates that the hypotheses advanced concerning the different employment situations are correct, at least to a certain extent. There are better opportunities for artistic activities in the expected artistically positive employment situations than in the negative.

Generally, the time consumption is the main problem, but the financial situation is also a problem to many respondents. The financial situation is in particular a problem to respondents in the expected artistically positive employment situations, whereas the time consumption is a problem to most respondents in the expected artistically partly negative employment situations, and the rules are the main problem to most respondents in the expected artistically negative employment situations.

In general, it can be deduced that many self-employed respondents have a poor financial position, salary-earners have problems with time for artistic production, and unemployed respondents receiving unemployment benefits and recipients of cash assistance have problems with the rules which do not leave them much room for art production.

The questionnaire also poses questions aimed at clarifying the artists' satisfaction with their own situation in particular and the artists' conditions in general.

• 27.4 per cent responded that they are somewhat or very dissatisfied with the tax authorities' treatment of them as artists.

• 62.4 per cent responded that they are somewhat or very dissatisfied with their income types compared with being an active artist.

• 77.1 per cent responded that they are somewhat or very dissatisfied with the conditions for artists in Denmark.

• 74.4 per cent responded that they are somewhat or very dissatisfied with the politicians' treatment of the artists' conditions in Denmark.

• 45 per cent responded that they are somewhat or very dissatisfied with the surroundings' treatment of the artists.

All things considered, the results reveal relatively large dissatisfaction with the artists' general conditions. Besides, there is for all five questions a significant connection between employment status and satisfaction. The artists in the expected artistically negative employment situations are considerably more dissatisfied than the artists in the expected artistically positive employment situations.

In general, the study shows that there is a significant connection between employment status and the artists' perception of their possibilities of making art and their satisfaction with the artists' general conditions. The artists in the expected artistically negative employment situations are significantly more negative than respondents in the expected artistically positive employment situations.

The absolutely crucial issue to artists must, however, be whether there is a market for their art. If there is, they can live by their art as self-employed. If there is not, they must survive on different jobs, different types of transfer income or one or another more or less expedient combination of different income sources - and that is, of course, not perceived as very satisfactory.

 

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