Being an artist isn’t necessarily a choice that makes for a successful career. There are only so many jobs. Most artists work freelance or work under contract. In between jobs there is a lot of insecurity and the need to find other work to fill in the gaps. Stability is needed in order to be creative. If your life is in flux you won’t have the time, energy or resources to truly devote yourself to a project. A good or great artist is not always a financially successful artist. I used to identify as a “liberal” or a progressive but as I got older and moved to America my politics moved more to the left as I saw the gap between what was being provided and what was needed.
For me being an artist and being a leftist are tied together. While I need to eat and pay bills and buy clothes and have somewhere to live; what I want to do is make art for other people to enjoy. Becoming a successful artist is a one in a million chance. I am definitely not smart enough to think of how we can rearrange our industry so every writer, filmmaker, visual artist, sound artist etc… can make enough money off their work in order to survive. But I can think of ways that we can reorganise our society so that it won’t matter how much money an artist makes off their work.
I believe art is for the people and that art should be as free or as cheap as possible and that it should be widely available. There is no distinction of high and low art. The effect of seeing Shakespeare on the West End can be as impactful as a group of experienced players doing Shakespeare in the park. Yes some art is of higher quality than others, but no art is necessarily worth more monetarily once time and effort has been put in. Art must be accessible or else it is just a vanity project. We all have the right to have access to all the art that has been created, not just the art that is in our price range.
At the same time I believe that the time and effort put into the art, and the training needed to get to that level, deserve compensation. So many times artists joke about dying from ‘exposure’ but it’s true. We all have the same bills, we all need to eat, we all get sick, and we all have the right to have those needs met.
We all need somewhere to live which is why I believe in guaranteed housing. If you don’t have a safe place to live, don’t have secure housing, or have to work longer hours or a second job in order to afford housing then you do not have the time or energy to create art. People like to talk about artists making great art despite adversity. That is true. But no one can make great art if they do not have a place to work, and sleep, and feel safe.
We all need clothes and to eat which is why I believe in Universal Basic Income. Some leftists prefer a jobs guarantee, but I think because of the project based nature of an artist’s work I don’t believe this would work. Instead I prefer UBI because it guarantees a certain amount of income, which would guarantee a certain amount of free time to work on individual projects. Then any additional income I earn can be used on my work or on things I want to buy, not things I need to live.
We all get sick so I believe in single payer healthcare. Private health insurance is exorbitantly expensive, and many artists are freelancers or contract workers and so do not qualify for employer health insurance. Single payer healthcare would ensure everyone could get good healthcare. No one would be vulnerable if they get sick, if they have a mental illness, if they get into an accident, or for any of the myriad of other reasons that someone would need to access good healthcare. Removing the expense and stress of paying for healthcare would free up more time, money, and brain space in order to work and create.
Beyond the individual benefits though we all live in a shared community. We are only as strong as our most vulnerable members. When someone is vulnerable they can create art, but they will not have the same ability to work on and share that art as when they are secure in their basic needs. It’s our job as a community to provide security.
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