Arts Funding, Arts Underfunded

Image credit Frankie Fajardo

With arts funding at an all time low, just how are creatives staying in the game?

Arts funding in the UK has dropped by 11% in recent years, so say Actors Union Equity. This is not spread evenly across the regions with a 30% drop in funding in Wales. Increasingly organisations, like the National Lottery, are filling a breach formerly funded by the local and national government, but now in an increasingly stretched economy, private sponsorship is becoming the go-to for many.

The picture across the UK varies widely, cities as opposed to rural areas are bountiful by comparison but still lacking resources.

Historically the arts have been a home to disenfranchised people, notably gay and non-conforming artists have found a home in the creative industries with a far higher representation and openness than other careers. Various factors have contributed to the inclusive nature of the arts, but the answers are not definitive.

 Long derided as a privileged hobby and not a serious career path to aspire to the arts have long been a victim of its own success, seen as a sparkly-shiny-glamours enterprise, the reality is far from magical for many.

Image credit Victoria Gugenheim

Victoria Gugenheim is an award-winning body painter and artist from London, she’s worked in film and is also a human rights activist.

“I have received absolutely no Arts Council funding for anything I have done. I have had to self-fund everything. For any sculptural work or arts and science work you are given a stipend but must pay room, board, and materials, after 6 months you’re left with a few hundred pounds. These are highly coveted; they say the stipend isn’t to replace your job. You need to have the right connections, if you want to be in the arts world you need to go to the right events.”

This lack of financial stability has left many artists seeking alternate employment, but for Victoria, her activism is bound up in her need to create.

“My project Painted Powerful is a survivor-led fine art body paint project. The women choose how they would like to be painted, giving them full autonomy in how they want to be portrayed. I have painted 17 women in the course of a year, and I am planning to upscale the project. The gap in the arts world between the haves and the have-nots has been widening because of austerity. There used to be lesbian squatters in Peckham who didn’t have to worry about rent while they worked. People starting out will be in poverty, the amount of work now that is needed makes it impossible. Loans and grants can be awarded as part of a commercial business plan, art does not adhere to a business structure. The act of being an artist is now seen as anathema to society’s model.”

Image credit Victoria Gugenheim

Disability in the arts is a bone of contention, with conversations over the casting of non-disabled actors in disabled roles coming to a head in recent years with roles like Richard 3rd under scrutiny.

Behind the camera, disabled editors and writers are in a minority and greatly underrepresented.

Titus Battiscombe is a filmmaker and writer who attended a performing arts college where he developed his skills, his work is informed by the intersection of his sexuality and disabilities.

Image credit Titus Battiscome

“I did a two-year digital media course in place of sixth form college, this access to the arts and a medium I feel drawn to enabled me to greatly express myself. However, for many access to the arts as well as appropriate placements is more of a challenge. With physical adjustments, I was able to realise my creative vision and collaborate to have my screenplays brought to life.

I think I’m a better writer now and access to the arts enabled me to be that to be a better writer and I’m grateful for the opportunity.”

It is clear that the urge to create is something ingrained in the human spirit, in spite of the low success rate many people still hopefully flock, and whether commercially successful many remain within the industries in some capacity.

While the long-term future of the arts remains to be seen, what is clear is that creatives will not give up on their passions and the mediums they use to create.