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The Visual Arts Blueprint - towards a better valued sector

By: Louise Wirz

"The challenge is to reconcile the prosperous economy with the good society", David Lammy, September 2009.

For those setting out to work within the visual arts on a self-employed, employed or dual basis, the working environment can seem an impenetrable world of smoke and mirrors. The recently launched Visual Arts Blueprint, is part of Creative and Cultural Skills' campaign, in the words of Chief Executive Tom Bewick, "to make the UK the world's creative hub". The Blueprint sets out a practical development plan addressing the key challenges faced by people working in the Visual Arts throughout the UK. The development of the Blueprint included input not only from the Steering Group (with representation from a-n, NAN, AIR) but also input from 2,000 visual arts workers. As an artist or a freelance curator, the odds of making a living entirely from your own practice are very small. It can be argued that those best placed are people that have developed skills that provide regular paid work that support their artistic and critical development. Research collated by Creative and Cultural skills as part of the Blueprint found that in 2004-5, there were 4,200 education providers delivering 34,600 courses in visual arts related fields. There were 37,480 people employed in the Visual Arts Sector,...

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