Starving artists? Surely that's a cliché.
In February, a 44-page study on the arts was prepared for Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council, by Hill Strategies Research, using figures from the 2006 census. It identified 140,000 Canadians as artists - those who spend most of their working time on their art - including actors, dancers, authors, visual artists and musicians.
The Hill study reported that artists are working for poverty-level wages. No surprises here! The image of a starving artist slaving in a tiny garret remains unchanged since Mozart first defaulted on his rent.
The study reports that in 2005 Canadian artists earned an average annual wage of $22,700, compared with $36,300 for all Canadian workers - a 37 per cent wage chasm. (The study does not include income from artists' project grants.)
This does not surprise Coast musician and music teacher Bonar Harris. He suggests that only a small percentage of the artists in the study have actually made it as full-time artists and it's more likely that a bigger second category include the artists working on establishing themselves to survive on their art. He suspects that the average income from art and craft in this group is well below the $10,000 mark.
So is it hard to earn a living as an artist in Canada?
"It's almost impossible," Harris said. "You only do it because, at a spiritual level, you have no alternative."
Is he starving? Not now, but Harris recalls with humour the days of travelling as a touring pop band in the early '80s when the guys could afford only peanut butter and cheese sandwiches.
He rejects the societal attitude that a career in the arts is its own reward and artists should have no expectation of being able to survive by selling their work.
"This is reflected in the attitude I hear over and over again, even from the parents of highly talented young musicians here on the Coast," Harris said. "Their parents support their ability, but want them to finish a university degree 'to have something to fall back on'."
The study also reported that the worst paid categories were women visual artists, closely followed by women artisans, musicians and dancers.Visual artist Jan Poynter is renowned for her paintings and her public art, including the museum's mural and decorated hydro boxes in Gibsons and Sechelt.
"My accountant and banker would completely agree with the income stats," Poynter said.
And she offers one of the reasons that making a living with art is so difficult. She tells of a customer interested in purchasing her painting who called her at her other job at a local nursery, a job she said is needed to support her family when painting sales are slow. The customer asked for a discount.
"Would you consider asking your dentist or your plumber for a discount because you really like their work?" she questions. Poynter's art business uses a realistic style that lends itself to commercial applications, for example, to advertising, publishing and design. It's art related work that might not be as satisfying as pure creativity.
Writer Carol Upton of Gibsons understands the concept of art as a business. After many years of trying, she has carved out a niche where she can earn a full time, albeit modest, living from her writing. But much of that work is copy writing: radio/TV pitches and press releases to promote authors, speakers and healing artists or book reviews and ads for the same clients.
"I think I would prefer to work full-time for my choice of magazines, which would feel more artistic to me, and not do so much copywriting. However, it's all writing and it all works," Upton said.
Most Coast artists generate money from their art on a part-time basis. Francine Lucas, arts facilitator, points to statistics gathered for the Coast's Cultural Scan in 2006 that are still available at www.coastculture.com.
The Cultural Scan research shows that 44 per cent of locals earned $5,000 per year or less from their work in the cultural sector. Approximately one-half of this low-earning group drew most of their income from other sources, either their pension/retirement savings or other work. It's no surprise that artists are often to be seen clerking in drug stores, preparing your latté or building your house.
Editor's note: Next week, in part two, the Hill study shows artists' earnings decreased even before the recession. On the Coast, purple banners and craft markets give hope. Aboriginal artists of both genders show particularly low average earnings.
