Our conference, In It Together: Art and the Economic Crisis

Wednesday, June 17th

From Tim In Toronto

Many of the points raised by the various panelists and audience members are applicable to artists continent wide. The demands placed upon artists, and particularly writers, by content providers and publishers are becoming more unreasonable with each passing day. Just yesterday morning I noticed a Craigslist posting under the writing employment section that was willing to pay $10 per 500-750 word piece that involved some research. That is well below minimum wage. Additionally, the poster was looking for 20-30 pieces per month. Not even a bitch in a puppy mill can generate that kind of output. I know that there will always be lowballers out there trying to exploit the bottom dwellers and new writers attempting to break into the business, but really, that is just over the top.

But not all hope is lost. I think that just as the price of an airline seat varies on any given flight, there will be fluctuations in the pricing of Art and writing. The monetized value of any given piece, especially for the written art, will fluctuate based on quality and market conditions. As witnessed with the quality of reporting regarding breaking news on the all news channels (speaking before thinking or having the facts), quality of prose, thought, and coherent ideas will trump quantity. We are rapidly creating a continent of functional illiterates (just visit any general web forum or many of the blogs out there) which will only increase the value of those writers which can convey critical thought and ideas in a clear and concise fashion.

This is definitely the time for an artist’s union, particularly for wordsmiths, to halt the erosion of their rights not just within their profession but within society in general. As you know, most artists are marginalized and for every successful artist/writer that does well (i.e. living wage) there are dozens more who don’t. The average annual income for a writer in Canada is just $8000. I can’t imagine it is much more in the United States.

The problem is that the desire to create and the need to monetize can be divergent. As one of the panelists stated yesterday, just because the economy is bad it doesn’t prevent one from creating art. What it may do, however, is cause certain artists to delay larger works or installations. Returning to the airline seat analogy, the value of time is greater to some than others. Just like the value of buying an airline seat at the last minute is greater than someone booking weeks in advance, the ability to spend time and resources on a work of art might be limited to the payoff. Every piece is a risk unless it is a commissioned one. Will I be able to recoup my investment (time, raw materials) and fund the next project? That question has to be asked either consciously, or subconsciously, when embarking on any given art project with the intention of monetary reward.