From NEA’s just-released report: Artists’ 4th-quarter unemployment rates in 2007 (blue) and 2008 (orange), compared to rates in general workforce and professional workforce
Just in case you live a sheltered life and think that performing and visual artists are doing great in this recession, the National Endowment for the Arts is here to set you straight.
NEA’s latest research report, Artists in a Year of Recession: Impact on Jobs in 2008, tells us that “artists, like other workers, are facing
sharp increases in unemployment.” (Surprise!)
Among the “key findings”:
—The artist unemployment rate grew to
6.0 percent in the fourth quarter of
2008—129,000 artists were unemployed in the
fourth quarter of 2008, an increase of
50,000 (+63 percent) from one year
earlier.—Their unemployment rate is
comparable to that of the overall
workforce (6.1 percent) but twice that
of the “professional” workers (3.0
percent) category in which all artists
are grouped.
Happily, NEA has just released its guidelines for its $30-million infusion to help support “projects that focus on the preservation of jobs in the arts.” That money comes from the $50 million appropriated to NEA in the federal economic stimulus package. The remaining $20 million will be adminstered by state, regional and jurisdictional arts agencies.
Unhappily, individual artists need not apply for the economic stimulus money. Applicants must be state or local governments, recognized tribal communities or nonprofits that have already gotten money from the NEA during the last four years.
If NEA really cares about the plight of unemployed artists, its action plan to address the findings of its own research report should be to reinstate individual artists’ fellowships. But first, President Obama needs to appoint a new, politically savvy NEA chairman.