Text by William Powhida New York, NY, USA (December 2, 2014)
Only 10 percent of arts graduates make a living from their creative practice. Artist William Powhida maps the institutional structures that keep most artists broke, and shares strategies for spreading the wealth.
It’s all too clear that artists are willing to sacrifice everything for their art, including self-interest, an unfortunate consequence of an economy that trades in exposure. In our perilously unequal society, most artists are poor, and few understand how we might begin to change the situation. According to a recent report by the artist-activist group BFAMFAPhD, only 10 percent of U.S. arts graduates make a living from their art. Yet the art market is booming; last year it nearly rebounded to its highest-ever level—the 2008 financial crash produced only a temporary dip—with $66 billion in sales. I recently spoke with the art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson about artists’ remuneration and made the mistake of saying, “The problem is, there just isn’t enough money.” She corrected me immediately: “There is enough money—it’s just concentrated in the hands of the very few.”
