“Holding dedicated workspace is a marker of artists’ continuous and serious practices, amplifying professional and career status and providing essential emotional, artistic and practical support amongst peers”

Over the past few years, Creative Land Trust have worked closely with Dr Susan Jones, an independent researcher and commentator specialising in close examination of the interrelationships between artists and the infrastructures for the contemporary visual arts. Producing the Artists’ lives: ecologies for resilience report. The report uncovers some valuable insights into the lives of artists and their macro and micro environments both at work, in their solo, dual and portfolio lives that include their artists’ practice.

Creative Land Trust was set up to create permanent artist residencies, whilst embedding the artist into an ecosystem as a solution to some of the challenges artists face. Since our inception in 2020, we now have 178 artists placed in long term affordable workspaces across our East London studios. The study begins with a portfolio of fourteen artists’ stories in vignette format drawn from interviews held over the period 2017-2024. Using the artists’ own words, terms and phraseology and anonymised for artists’ personal and professional protection, these stories capture each individual’s personality and attitude and convey the nuances of their personal and professional circumstances.

Close study of visual artists’ motivations and ambitions for their lives and art practices shows the importance of having time and space for professional reflection and making artistic progress. In combination with access to research and development funding, studio facilities make a significant contribution to artists’ development and their social well-being over time as they deal with the uncertain artistic and economic conditions of the creative industries.

The project is a close study of visual artists’ motivations and ambitions for their lives and art practices shows the importance of having time and space for professional reflection and making artistic progress. In combination with access to research and development funding, studio facilities make a significant contribution to artists’ development and their social well-being over time as they deal with the uncertain artistic and economic conditions of the creative industries. And Show:

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   – Artists’ practices are a lifetime pursuit in which deeply held beliefs about art’s social and psychic value provide emotional sustenance. Artists’ enduring motivations rest on intrinsic values including self-worth, caring for others and drive for personal growth.

2. – Most visual artists don’t operate as small enterprises with business growth at the heart. Conducting visual art practices is of necessity experimental, speculative and time intensive. Some 44% of artists rent external studio space, creating an important distinction between domestic and professional lives and providing safe storage for equipment, materials, work-in-progress and finished works.

3. – Holding dedicated workspace is a marker of artists’ continuous and serious practices, amplifying professional and career status and providing essential emotional, artistic and practical support amongst peers.

4. – Artists in collective studios benefit from hosting invitational curatorial visits towards securing exhibitions and commissions, participating in open studios and using in-house space for their exhibitions and community activities.

5. – At all career stages, artists suffer restricted studio time, causing underuse of rented studios. The combination of poor economic prospects and scarce R&D funding means artists spend most of their time doing other income-generating jobs rather than being artists in their studios.

6. – Dedicated grants for artists to experiment, build artistic capacity and hone and upgrade technical and craft skills are highly valued but scarce. Artists receiving the Government’s £10,000 Covid-19 ‘Small business’ grant reported a positive boost and lasting benefits. Artists at an early development stage would particularly benefit from easier access to lower value grants.

7. – Artists have a vested interest in forging locally distinctive environments and cultures characterised by self-sufficiency and sustainability as first-and-foremost, artists are people who eat, shop, sleep and socialise where they live.

8. – Neurodivergence levels in the creative industries are around 20%, making them 6% higher than in the general population. The associated dyslexia and dyscalculia impact on artists’ basic communications skills, creating challenges for their professional relationships and when making applications for grants and projects.

9. – Artistic and financial success in arts and cultural organisations relies on a steady flow of affordable, flexible, skilled freelancers on a ‘just in time’ basis. Artists presenting as acquiescent, willing to work for low pay and grateful for whatever they’re given are more likely to be offered the work.

10. – Artists seeking to forge careers through public and private galleries must pass control of their public image to the art world’s cooperating coteries of curators, dealers, critics, senior artists and collectors. The byproduct of this cartel – the wastage – is the perceived ‘over supply’ of artists and limited livelihood prospects for many.

Artists’ lives: ecologies for resilience
©Susan Jones 2025 www.padwickjonesarts.co.uk