Being An Artist Is Hard: Navigating the Dynamics of Money and Power

Abstract

Since the global financial crisis of 2008, the art market has experienced big sales against a backdrop characterized by widening economic inequity and evolving mass media and technology. The rapidly changing landscape of the arts not only has the possibility of destabilizing the career trajectory of artists and altering the mode of creative production, but also the potential to offer new opportunities for them. Focusing on the United States, this thesis takes as its starting point the idea that artists are the most fundamental actors in the art world and then investigates the ways in which and the extent to which artists are affected by the new paradigm. The paper analyzes the economic precarity of artists in relation to their most immediate environment of cultural institution, philanthropy, and the art market. I approach these topics by studying extant literature on cultural economics, sociology, and politics; surveying primary sources; and interviewing industry practitioners. I argue that the current challenges in relation to philanthropy, to the governance of cultural institutions, and to the stratified art market, render the art world increasingly undemocratic, which has the consequence of compromising creative autonomy and hindering sustainability of artistic careers. In the context of these challenges that artists face in the art world environment, I examine the aspects of creative careers that structurally impede artists from attaining financial security while engaging in creative production. Ultimately, contextualizing these challenges within proliferation of blockchain applications and mass media, I demonstrate how entrepreneurship and retained fractional equity could facilitate artists’ survival and “thrival” within the precariousness.