The pressure is on: artists are forced to become ‘artrepreneurs’

How are artists affected by societal demands to act as entrepreneurs? Is this compatible with artistic freedom? Researchers at Södertörn University will investigate this in a newly launched Baltic Sea project.

Very few visual artists, actors, musicians or dancers today find permanent employment. For the past 20 years or so, the role of an arts and culture practitioner has included running a business, with skills in finance, sales and marketing.

– They are increasingly expected to act as ‘artrepreneurs’ – independent and business-oriented individuals, says Ann-Sofie Köping, senior lecturer in business administration at Södertörn University.

According to her, one explanation for the development could be the introduction of New Public Management in the public sector during the 1990s.

– It was intended to streamline activities based on the market principle, and resulted in an increase in administration. Today, art institutions often have more administrators than artists. Administrative costs eat up a large part of the public funds allocated to the cultural sector.

Reduced funding for the cultural sector

Artists are under increasing financial pressure. According to Ann-Sofie Köping, there is a growing expectation from society that artists and cultural workers should increase their own funding. At the same time, public funding has been stagnant for a long time. And with the current government, it has also decreased.

– But the cultural sector finds it difficult to charge because we are used to culture being free,” explains Ann-Sofie Köping.

She is referring to the cultural policy objectives of 1974, which are largely about making culture accessible to all, regardless of where you live or what your income is.

– We want to go to museums for free and movie tickets should not cost too much. It’s in our DNA somehow. So it’s a tricky situation for artists and cultural workers when they are expected to start charging more. But is there anyone willing to pay?

Expected to contribute to economic growth

The vast majority of them earn an income alongside their artistic work and act as cultural entrepreneurs to survive financially. At the same time, creative and cultural industries are receiving increasing political attention.

– This has contributed to expectations that artists should also contribute to economic growth and the attractiveness of places, for example, explains Ann-Sofie Köping.

In the artists’ own words

In a newly launched three-year Baltic Sea project involving Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania, researchers will study the relationship between practicing art and culture within the framework of artistic freedom on the one hand – and the conditions of public funding, or the market, on the other.

– There are a lot of statistical surveys on how much artists earn, but there has not previously been a comprehensive study on how artists perceive this contradiction, says Ann-Sofie Köping.

By interviewing artists and cultural organizations in the four countries, the researchers want to understand how artists themselves view the concept of cultural entrepreneurship, how they finance their activities and how their artistic freedom is affected by operating in a market.

You have been in operation since January this year. What have you come up with so far?

– We have seen that public support systems for the cultural sector differ between the four countries. But artists in all four countries face similar challenges.

– An important question we ask in the project is how artistic freedom is affected by economic conditions. The market can – in theory – provide some freedom. But public funding criteria can limit creativity, and challenge the principle that politicians should keep an arm’s length, says Ann-Sofie Köping.

The article is produced in collaboration with Södertörn University.

Contact ann.sofie.koping@sh.se

More about the project
The ArtR research project is a three-year project that started in January 2024 and is funded by the Baltic Sea Foundation.