the impact of covid 19 On the arts sector: Fine art

“The emergency relief fund Artist Relief has released findings from its new survey assessing how artists are impacted by COVID-19, and the results paint a bleak picture, with 95 percent of respondents reporting loss of income due to the pandemic”.

–Daria Harper, Artist Relief 2020

“The crisis has exposed the art market’s vulnerabilities … in March it went into cardiac arrest — none of the traditional ways of doing business worked … A systemic shift is happening”

–Anders Petterson, ArtTactic.

Pre-Covid

 A large proportion of business within the Fine Arts sector is conducted at Art Fairs. Buyers are able to peruse the latest offerings from artists and galleries before purchasing. Art buyers enjoy the experience of seeing works in the flesh – they can assess the scale, the textures and the feel of the artwork. In 2019, galleries conducted 46% of their sales through Art Fairs such as London’s Art Fair, the Armory show in New York and Frieze LA.

The art sector has long been an industry that’s higher echelons are dominated by male artists. This is reflected within London’s major commercial galleries where only 32% of artists represented are female. This is also evident in the sale of works of art at auctions.

At auction, male artists made up 88% of the sales and only 3% of the highest grossing sales were made by female artists (according to research carried out by the Freelands Foundation, 2019).

 Caroline Criado Perez refers to ‘Brilliance Bias’ in her book ‘Invisible Women’. It is the concept that men are more likely to be considered as Genius or innately talented than their female counterparts.

‘Several studies have found that the more a field is culturally understood to require ‘brilliance’ or ‘raw talent’ to succeed – the fewer women there will be studying and working in it. We just don’t see women as naturally brilliant … we see femininity as inversely associated with brilliance’. – Invisible Women

Pre-Covid: Gender

 Let us unpick the gender norms within the Art sector a little further.

According to a recent report carried out by Kings College, London:

66% of applications to postgraduate study in the creative arts and design sector were by women, whereas with an almost inverse ratio, 63% of the most senior staff were male.

The Freelands Foundation poses the question:

What happens between graduation (where 66% are female) and mid-career to women artists? … 68% of the artists represented at top London commercial galleries are men.

Do informal networks provided by male staff or support for particular research interests benefit the careers of male students?

This continues to reflect anecdotal attitudes in the sector that female artists make poorer investments. Again, this data prompts questions about why might women artists seem like lower performing investments, and what might the sector do to bolster against these biases? Why italics?

Table: Representation of Female Artists in Britain: https://freelandsfoundation.imgix.net/documents/Representation-of-Female-Artists-in-Britain-Research-2019-copy.pdf 

Gender – Pre Covid

 Data is being gathered per sector on the gender pay gaps. We are able to see inequalities in a more quantitative way.

 The Global Gender Gap Report 2018 by the World Economic Forum, states that it will take 108 years to achieve gender parity at current rates of change. The UK, ranked 15th in the same report… the UK reported that 80% of companies paid women less than men and not one industry had achieved gender parity.

In a 2019 report The Freelands Foundation writes :

“in 2016, in research asking whether the creative industries are meritocratic, it was found that ‘female employees have average earnings of £239/week or over £12,000/year less than men (with similar class backgrounds) in the CCIs (Culture and Creative Industries) as a whole’.  Far from creating a liberal and inclusive environment, the CCIs, and within that, the visual arts, are a microcosm of wider social values whereby women’s labour is less valued”. 

So, what do we do? In April 2019, Tate Modern Director, Frances Morris, attempted to implement a 50/50 split of work made by Male and Female artists shown in it’s Natalie Bell Building. Yet this was criticised by many for undermining the role of ‘great art’ [suggesting] that work by female artists is of a lesser standard? (is this a quote?)

Covid and Gender

 The UN Women voiced concern that existing inequalities will be magnified under the arrival of the Covid pandemic. They were correct. There has been an increase in unpaid domestic work (usually done by women) in the wake of the pandemic and there are case studies and data to suggest that women’s professional productivity has suffered.  Academia have seen a drop in production of journal articles written by women. It will be interesting to see data on whether women artists are affected in the same way.

According to Catalyst, women with children are twice as likely as men to be carrying out homeschooling. The Boston Consulting Group notes that women have seen their domestic labor increase by an average of 15 hours a week during the pandemic. 

Time will tell if women are able to continue producing work to meet demand and whether clients and galleries are able to support them, being mindful of home commitments.

Emily Tsingou in The Standard notes that:

“The growing interest in women and artists of colour is not a market trend, but a new reality. I have not noticed any changes in the way collectors approach this since the pandemic.” Overall, Tsingou sees a shift towards collectors buying what they know, “and therefore auctions have been doing great business, as well as mega-galleries who are offering up established artists.”

That is exacerbating an existing polarisation in the art industry, leaving less wealthy, less known smaller galleries struggling. (is this a quote? why Italics?)

The UN Women voiced concern that existing inequalities would be magnified with the Co-vid pandemic. They were correct to be concerned. Women have seen an increase in unpaid domestic work under the pandemic. There are case studies and data which suggest that women’s professional productivity has suffered. For example there has been a drop in academic journal articles produced by women. It will be interesting to see whether women artists are affected in the same way.

According to Catalyst, women with children are twice as likely as men to be supervising homeschooling. The Boston Consulting Group notes that women have seen their domestic labor increase by an average of 15 hours a week during the pandemic. 

Time will tell if women are able to continue producing work to meet demand and whether clients and galleries are able to support them, being mindful of home commitments.

Emily Tsingou in The Standard (month, year?)noted that :

“The growing interest in women and artists of colour is not a market trend, but a new reality. I have not noticed any changes in the way collectors approach this since the pandemic.” Overall, Tsingou sees a shift towards collectors buying what they know, “and therefore auctions have been doing great business, as well as mega-galleries who are offering up established artists.”

This is exacerbating an existing polarisation in the art industry, leaving less wealthy, less known smaller galleries struggling.

Covid Climate

In her article ‘Art market report shows the severe impact of Covid-19’ (Financial Times, date, year?), Melanie Gerlis notes that

– Art gallery sales fell by an average 36 per cent in the first half of this year as published by Art Basel and UBS 2020.

– The gallery industry as a whole has been hit on several fronts by the lockdowns and other restrictions around the world. “The business model — based fundamentally on discretionary spending and strongly dependent on travel and in-person contact — is uniquely positioned to struggle in the present realities of the Covid-19 pandemic”. 

–The greatest pain has been felt by those lower down the food chain. Galleries with a turnover between $250,000 and $500,000 a year, which represent 13 per cent of those surveyed have had to downsize the most (38 per cent) and have had the greatest fall in total sales (47 per cent).

–Total sales made online grew from a 10 per cent share of business in 2019 to 37 per cent for the first half of 2020. 

–ArtTactic’s recent study, the Hiscox online art trade report 2020, found that auction sales dropped 49 percent in the first half of the year.

Move to Online Trading

The art sector has historically relied on personal interaction but the sudden move online has opened possibilities for art collectors.

According to the FT:

An average of 59 percent of collectors say the pandemic has “increased their interest in collecting”, with 31 per cent adding “significantly so”. This move is strongest among the millennial bracket (defined here as aged between 23 and 38).

There has also been a rising at the other end of the spectrum of lesser-known artists taking part in an Instagram initiative :

The Artist Support Pledge, set up in March by the artist Matthew Burrows, aims to support lesser-known artists selling work for £200 or less — artists can sell works through the scheme by posting images on Instagram with the hashtag #ArtistSupportPledge. In this scheme, once an artist sells £1,000 worth of work, they are obligated to buy a work by another artist. At the end of August, Burrows told The Art Newspaper the scheme had so far generated an estimated £60m.

https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/arts/art-world-markets-covid19-frieze-week-a4562041.html

Online Trading

“.””””. The swift move to online exhibiting could open up sales to a broad audience. Women artists could benefit from this. Online platforms provide more content as they aren’t confined by physical exhibition space. LOPF exhibitor Elizabeth Harvey-Lee lays out some positives and negatives of her experience moving the Exhibition online.

 “Nothing can replace the ‘real’ Print Fair – seeing regular customers, meeting new people, personal interaction over the hundreds of prints usually to be seen on my stand, either unframed in solander boxes or framed on the walls … Taking the event online means that we have all had a chance to look at every print in the Fair – and what a spectacular range there is, much of it on show for the first time. Now visitors will be able to see them all too, this year from the comfort of their own home … We hope people will love the online edition – and that we will all be back together again in person next year.”(https://thenetgallery.com/curtailed-but-not-kiboshed-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-london-art-events/)

The transition to online trading  in the wake of the pandemic has highlighted the role that online selling could play for all sizes of galleries. The large gallery, Hauser and Wirth had not previously held online shows but in The Standard, state that :

‘Since March, it has had over 1.2 million visitors to its platform and has now developed its own VR technology (with which it has created a virtual Frieze tent on the online viewing room). Neil Wenman, a partner at the gallery, says that they have had to “question outdated ideas” about selling art digitally: “What we thought was the maximum value we could sell online, that glass ceiling has smashed.”

Further benefits of the online trading …

The move online by galleries is beneficial in terms of presenting work to a global audience. It also provides a platform for Artists to connect with their audience. Many artists have run online classes over platforms such as Zoom and some have been spotlighted by various galleries. For example, US based exhibition space, Tiger Strikes Asteroid is run independently by artists and has a community driven ethos. They may be closed for in person meetings but they’ve gone virtual in the meantime, hosting weekly images with the hashtag #AskTigerStrikesAsteroid. “Each Saturday at noon we will post an artwork, with opportunities for people to ask the artists any questions they want about the work, or their practice. We hope this will be a way for our audience to connect with the artists, and a fun way to pass time as we hole up.”

“To all the art supporters and patrons out there, now is the time when you could make a real difference. Please consider supporting the artists, galleries, and cultural institutions you admire. It’s much needed, and will be remembered.”

        https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-artists-staying-creative-covid-19

Financial

The Covid19 pandemic has put many artists under significant financial strain. Ninety five percent have reported a loss of income and in the US sixty two percent of artists have become fully unemployed (where is this stat from please?). Artists frequently teach their discipline or have a second job whilst producing their own studio work and many have lost their secondary employment.

The Art Newspaper expresses concern from many industry bodies that its artists are falling through cracks in current government support schemes.

Clare Harris, the director of SCAN, says : “Our feedback, both from the survey and from ongoing member engagement, shows that a significant proportion of those working in visual arts are concerned that they won’t qualify under the criteria of the SEISS. These could be people who augment their self-employment income with part-time PAYE work, from the gig economy, or from other sources which are now no longer available to them due to the current situation.”

Women artists who are parenting are likely to be hard hit. Julie Lomax, the chief executive of a-n Artist Information Company lays out in the Art Newspaper (volume, month, year?) :

Those who have taken maternity leave in the past three years are also facing setbacks – the time off is not discounted, bringing average earnings down. “There is an element of discrimination around parenting and in particular women,” Lomax says, noting how the current situation is highlighting longstanding inequalities.

Financial – Case Study

 The artist Heidi Hahn is spotlighted in Artsy’s article voicing her concerns:

“I don’t have a problem with social distancing,” she reflects, “I feel like the majority of my regular life is distanced from most people. I’m more concerned with those who are losing their jobs, and businesses closing, and so much more over the next year. It’s really overwhelming and scary … Of course, making things you love, for their own sake, doesn’t pay your monthly rent. Beyond the precariousness of the current art market, Hahn’s role as an assistant professor at Alfred University has been thrown into disarray. All classes are now being held virtually. “How do I teach painting to students living at home without any studios or supplies?” she pondered. “This is something that I’m working on now: teaching painting without paint.”

The implications seem to resonate with artists globally. The Guardian Australia reports on the artist Sarah Rodigaris experience :

“all her projects have been postponed or cancelled, and that her casual teaching hours have been cut in the move to online study. “The biggest impact has been a loss of future,” Rodigari said. “Without government support for the visual arts or the higher education sector, there are very limited opportunities in 2021. It’s like our future has gone.“The irony is I teach art. It’s very hard to Zoom with a class of aspiring artists and writers, and teach cultural leadership and architecture and advocacy. How can we imagine a future at a time when all these avenues are closing down?” (reference both quotes above – volume, page or month?)

Benevolent Fund

Artists are falling between the gaps of government support schemes. The sector has had to find ways to internally support its own. The UK government scheme, for example, is thought to be available to 66% of freelancers, where it was previously aiming to cover 95%. The art sector is made up of a workforce many of whom operate with short term contracts, varied employers and zero hour contracts.

There have been Benevolent Funds attempting to help artists who are in need of financial assistance. For example, in the US, a coalition of seven grant makers called ‘Artist Relief’ has been accepting applications and thus far has received more than 55,000 responses from artists in need.

The grantmaking coalition also launched a COVID-19 Impact Survey for artists and creative workers.

Their findings indicate that 66 percent of artists are unable to access the resources necessary for their work; 80 percent do not have a plan to recover after the crisis; and the average decline in estimated total annual income is $27,103.

In Australia, Visual Arts reports that:

NAVA and Art Month Sydney have reinvigorated the Artists’ Benevolent Fund to make funds available for disaster and emergency visual arts practice recovery at this difficult time.The renewed Artists’ Benevolent Fund hopes to provide modest but useful one-off financial assistance to Australian visual artists in crisis as a result of fire, flood, storm, serious illness, major accident, declared state or national emergencies, or some other unexpected catastrophic experience.

Artist Benevolent Fund

To rebuild the Artists’ Benevolent Fund, ClubB50 will raise $2.5m over a decade – that’s $250,000 per year going straight to visual artists.

We need 50 donors to commit $5,000 per year for 10 years. This will offer eligible artists a one-off payment of $2,000 to provide immediate assistance following a disaster or catastrophic event in their lives.

Donate to the Artists’ Benevolent Fund

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mMTEOXg3Xg&feature=emb_logo

Australia

Many Artists and galleries have had to start from scratch again. This follows previous hardships that have been associated with governmental funding cuts over the past five years.

Industry Advisory Note from NAVA:

Artists and arts workers are seeing years worth of work vanish as exhibition openings and festivals are cancelled, galleries close, residencies are withdrawn, talks and workshops are abandoned, and all next jobs are entirely in jeopardy. Each of these engagements represents a career culmination for everyone involved. As self-generated income disappears, the livelihoods of independent artists and freelance workers are imperiled, and successful small-to-medium companies risk folding. We’ve never seen anything like this.  https://visualarts.net.au/advocacy/campaigns/industry-advisory-note-covid-19-response/nava-advocacy-toolkit-COVID-19/

In Australia, arts events and public programs have been either being downscaled, postponed, or cancelled. Biennials, festivals, exhibitions, symposia, residencies, workshops, talks and all other programs are jeopardised indefinitely, with a debilitating effect on our cultural life. Individual artists – the practitioners whose itinerant work invented the terms “gig economy” and “portfolio career” – have been facing unexpected income losses, some of which amount to a year or even two years’ worth of work. https://visualarts.net.au/advocacy/covid-19/

Australia – Case Study

Elissa Blake in the Guardian has spotlighted the experience of Australian visual artists :

Gone are the crowded, sparkling wine-fuelled openings that bring potential buyers and the art curious to commercial galleries. Gone, too, is the tourist trade that supports regional galleries and their artists.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jul/02/its-like-our-future-has-gone-visual-artists-facing-existential-threat-post-covid-19

David Collins, the photographic artist says “I’ve got many friends who have lost all their work and who are completely unsupported in their art practice because they’ve lost their part-time gigs and they can’t access jobkeeper. They’ve really been struck down by this.”

The hit won’t just be financial. “It takes away a lot of professional opportunities and you’re not meeting other artists face-to-face. It’s really important to have those conversations and connect.”

 “One of them was a job shooting fashion images but the company decided not to utilise jobkeeper and fire their casual staff, requesting we re-apply for jobs at the packing warehouse if we wanted to be looked after,” Collins said. “It’s been messy.”

Like the majority of visual artists, Collins is not eligible for government support. At this point, there is nothing in the recently announced $250m arts support package for individual artists to get back on their feet or develop new business models.

UK

It is not only individual artists that are feeling the effects of the pandemic but the whole ecosystem that makes up the world of the Fine and Visual Arts is reeling from it. Artists are dependent on galleries, galleries are dependent on Artists. Student artists rely on learning from experienced artists who are their teachers and teachers rely on the income to facilitate their own art making.

The Royal Academy of Arts in London is one of many institutions that are grappling with how to financially navigate the pandemic. The RA are investigating selling an incredibly valuable Michelangelo art work to prevent job losses. The Arts Newspaper explores the story on her podcast for The Art Newspaper on the link below :

With UK museums and galleries in crisis, might the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) be forced to sell its Michelangelo? We look at the story that has emerged in recent days that some Royal Academicians—the artists and architects that run the RA—are suggesting selling the Taddei Tondo to prevent huge job losses and keep the Academy afloat. You can watch our editor Alison Cole explain more about the tondo—the only marble sculpture by the Italian master in the UK—here.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/podcast/sell-the-michelangelo-or-lose-159-staff-the-ra-s-covid-19-conundrum

USA

Washington DC based think tank the Brookings Institution estimates losses of 2.7 million jobs in the creative sectors with those working in the fine and performing arts the hardest hit. Job losses are estimated to be in the region of 1.4 million between Fine Arts and the Performing Arts.

So how does this break down?

According to the Arts Newspaper:

“Fine artists—including painters, sculptors and illustrators have seen an estimated 123,639 jobs eliminated and cumulative earning losses of $1.7m per month. Photographers, listed separately, account for 390,416 job losses and more than $16m in lost wages each month.

It is time to consider direct stipends for artists, something that the National Endowment for the Arts is not permitted to do.”

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/brookings-report-lost-art-covid-crisis

Further Reading

Sell the Michelangelo or lose 150 staff? The Royal Academy of Arts’s Covid-19 conundrum:

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/podcast/sell-the-michelangelo-or-lose-159-staff-the-ra-s-covid-19-conundrum

Ongoing Coverage of COVID-19’s Impact on the Art World

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-ongoing-coverage-covid-19s-impact-art

How 10 Artists Are Staying Creative through COVID-19

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-artists-staying-creative-covid-19

State of the art world: How Covid-19 turned the global art market upside down:

https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/arts/art-world-markets-covid19-frieze-week-a4562041.html

New report reveals stark gender disparity in the visual arts:

://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/new-report-reveals-stark-gender-disparity-in-the-visual-arts

Representation of Female Artists in Britain:

https://freelandsfoundation.imgix.net/documents/Representation-of-Female-Artists-in-Britain-Research-2019-copy.pdf

‘It’s like our future has gone’: visual artists facing existential threat post Covid-19:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jul/02/its-like-our-future-has-gone-visual-artists-facing-existential-threat-post-covid-19

How 10 Artists Are Staying Creative through COVID-19

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-artists-staying-creative-covid-19

State of the art world: How Covid-19 turned the global art market upside down:

https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/arts/art-world-markets-covid19-frieze-week-a4562041.html

New report reveals stark gender disparity in the visual arts:

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/new-report-reveals-stark-gender-disparity-in-the-visual-arts

Representation of Female Artists in Britain:

https://freelandsfoundation.imgix.net/documents/Representation-of-Female-Artists-in-Britain-Research-2019-copy.pdf

‘It’s like our future has gone’: visual artists facing existential threat post Covid-19:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jul/02/its-like-our-future-has-gone-visual-artists-facing-existential-threat-post-covid-19

This COVID-19 Industry Advisory Note is intended for NAVA Members and our colleagues in the contemporary arts sector across Australia:

https://visualarts.net.au/advocacy/covid-19/

NAVA Advocacy Toolkit: Helping government understand the need for urgent stimulus:

https://visualarts.net.au/advocacy/campaigns/industry-advisory-note-covid-19-response/nava-advocacy-toolkit-COVID-19/

Curtailed but not Kiboshed: the impact of COVID-19 on London art events:

https://thenetgallery.com/curtailed-but-not-kiboshed-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-london-art-events/