Artists spend around 60 percent of their total working time making art – other work performed mainly because income from artistic work is not enough to make ends meet

The Arts and Culture Barometer is conducted annually by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike) together with the Foundation for Cultural Policy Research (Cupore) with the purpose of monitoring the views of artists regarding current issues. The theme of the 2023 barometer was the different types of work performed by artists. Altogether 1417 artists responded to the barometer survey in autumn 2023.

According to the results, artists extend their activities and work to many areas of society, both by making art and performing other types of work. While their artistic work is strongly focused on traditional artforms, they also create art in many other fields of the arts as well. Multidisciplinary work is very common for artists along with independent artistic work focusing on a specific artform. Crossing boundaries is also an important way of finding work.

Alongside actual artistic work, and often in order to finance their artistic work, artists also perform other types of work, mainly because their income from artistic work is not enough to make ends meet. Other jobs are considered meaningful in part, especially work that requires the professional competence of an artist, and many artists would gladly do this work if it were available. At the same time, however, other work is also seen as a burden and takes time, energy and thoughts away from making art.

Artists have multiple income sources – about half of their income comes from their artistic work

It is typical for artists to receive income from many different sources. This fragmentation of earnings may bring freedom to influence one’s own work schedules or work content, but often it is also linked to uncertainty about work and earnings, unpaid and short vacations, and problems with social security issues, for example. For some artists, this situation is natural, while for others it is considered hard and burdensome.

Artists who responded to the barometer survey estimated that they received, on average, about half of their income from their artistic work. The most common income sources were fees or compensation, salary or wages, working grants and copyright compensation. More than a quarter of the artists had been covered by unemployment benefits at least at some point during the year.

Welcome to the discussion forum

The findings of the Arts and Culture Barometer will be presented at a discussion forum at Semifinalissa (Urho Kekkosen katu 6, Helsinki) on 17 April 2024. The forum can also be viewed online. The link to the livestream, the programme and further information is available on the Taike website.

Arts and Culture Barometer 2023: Different types of work performed by artists

The report (in Finnish) can be downloaded in PDF format from the Cupore and Taike websites.

Ruusuvirta, Minna, Kanerva, Anna, Rensujeff, Kaija & Leppänen, Aino (2024) Arts and Culture Barometer 2023. Different types of work performed by artists. Cupore webpublications 78. Center for Cultural Policy Research.

Further information

Anna Kanerva, Senior Researcher, Foundation for Cultural Policy Research (Cupore), anna.kanerva@cupore.fi, t. +358 50 302 1414