Cracking up: the pandemic effect on visual artists’ livelihoods

Abstract

ABSTRACT This analysis of the plight of visual artists during Covid-19 illuminates the working conditions of a chronically under-examined sub-section of cultural labour. It demonstrates the severity of pandemic impacts on visual artists’ social and economic circumstances, including inappropriate criteria for accessing government and Arts Council England emergency measures. A central concern is a consideration of how arts policies might better acknowledge and account in future arts infrastructures for the distinctive, diverse social contributions of this workforce element. The commentary reveals a stark contrast between ambitions at national and local levels about what artists and the arts are for, and where and how arts policy should be made and implemented. It evidences an emerging grassroots appetite for a dramatic shift from current hierarchical patterns driven by national imperatives to nuanced, localized infrastructures that can ensure artists’ multiple talents and assets contribute fully to social and economic change for the better within communities.