Artist Basic Income pilot; 2022-2023
Summary of Findings
Take Me Somewhere’s Artist Basic Income Pilot Ran for 10 months October 2022 – July 2023. We made this intervention in the sector, not as a general trial but as a way to show the impact of economics on those closest to us. By actively engaging with new artist funding models, even on a small scale, we aimed to become better advocates for contemporary performance artists within Scotland and examine additional ways they can be supported.
Impact to Artists
Evaluation of the scheme comprised of questionnaire data, monthly participant diaries and exit interviews; which consistently demonstrate positive impacts across all four evaluation dimensions: Financial Sustainability, Health and Wellbeing, Social and Relationships, and Creative and Artistic Learning and Development.. Overall, the pilot has therefore been evaluated as highly successful at achieving its aims of responding to challenges and supporting artists across the four dimensions.
Both artists had positive impacts to their health and wellbeing. One artist was able to fully rehabilitate from a longstanding injury by committing funds to a regular Pilates practice and Gym membership. Both increased their self-care, hobbies, and leisure interests. Both increased their self-care, hobbies, and leisure interests.
One Artist noted that increased connection to a local artistic community and increased presentation opportunities were just as important to them as financial stability. ABI did not directly affect these things for them in the time scale of the project. They felt fulfilling artistic careers should be seen as an intersection of these aspects.
Receiving the Artist Basic Income impacted positively on the artists’ social lives and relationships. One artist felt more able to volunteer their time to support others. The other no longer struggled to maintain an active social life and relationships, developing their professional networks, and increasing family time.
Both participating artists experienced improvements in financial sustainability during the pilot – this is despite added economic pressures caused by the cost-of-living crisis. They were more able to meet their basic needs at the end of the pilot, and one artist saw their income increase over 40%; 28,000 compared to £19,800 with an 11% increase year on year from their artistic practice specifically.
Their creative practices were shifted. Both undertook international work that may have been inaccessible without the safety net of the Artist Basic Income. They increased the hours dedicated to their practice. One artist described the experience of receiving Artist Basic Income as “a total value shift” for their artistic practice.
Background
The Artist Basic Income Pilot project formed part of TMS’ overall programme of sector support in 2022-2023. It emerged following the period of instability and precarity for live performance artists during the Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, where many performance venues and festivals were unable to operate, or had reduced programmes, resulting in a loss of work and income for performance artists. This precarity was further compounded with cost of living rises in 2021 and 2022.
Existing welfare and public funding for artists was acknowledged to be inadequate and limited in these circumstances, and so TMS sought to explore alternatives to aid the recovery of the sector and support the wellbeing of individual creative practitioners.
Launching the scheme TMS stated:
“We believe that major, structural, financial interventions are essential in order to sustain and secure people’s livelihoods, particularly in the post-pandemic landscape and in combating societal inequality and the cost-of-living crisis. Although we recognise there is a wide need for this across the country, as an arts organisation our modest pilot focuses on artists/ performance makers working in the area of contemporary performance.…
Our ambition is to add to conversation surrounding sustainability and wellbeing in the current moment but also to look at the particular ways the artists we work with feel challenged and can be supported. We are especially interested in finding out what a basic income does for creative practice, health & wellbeing, relationships, and financial sustainability.”
See the initial call out here.
What is a Basic Income ?
The idea of Artist Basic Income draws on the concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI) which has long been a policy of interest for the cultural sector in Scotland.
Universal Basic Income is the premise that all citizens of a particular country or territory receive a regular cash payment “without any reference to their other income or wealth and without any conditions” (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2021).
Interest in UBI appeared in the commentary surrounding Culture Counts crowdsourced Manifesto for Culture in Scotland in 2021, and Scottish Contemporary Art Network’s Manifesto asks the same year, endorsed by Scottish Artists Union amongst others. These documents were both prepared ahead of the Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2021.
UBI pilots have been conducted in Wales and feasibility studies for UBI have been completed in Scotland. In 2021 The Joseph Rowntree Foundation published a major report stating that it could “reduce poverty, improve income security and boost well-being” whilst acknowledging some of the hurdles to establishing it, stating it “could be expensive and challenging to introduce”.
Rather than providing a universal benefit, an Artist Basic Income is a regular cash payment provided for those who demonstrate they are practising artists.
An example to illustrate this is currently active in Ireland: The Irish Government launched the first major pilot of their Basic Income for Artists (BIA) Scheme in 2022. To date 2000 artists have participated in the scheme, which runs until 2025, and provides €325 per week (paid monthly) to participants, who were selected at random in a non-competitive process. The only condition of participation is that they meet the eligibility criteria demonstrating their arts practice, and they contribute to data collection for the research activity surrounding the pilot scheme, which runs to 2025. More information can be found here.
Take Me Somewhere’s Artist Basic Income
£213 per week was budgeted in Oct 2021 & based on Scottish Government led UBI pilots. In determining the value of the basic income TMS also looked at other European pilots, the largest being Spain (€1,015 per month /£852.04). Notably The Green Party have been campaigning for a ‘Universal Basic Income’ at £85 per week, which was at the lower end of the scale. The only scheme that was higher was Ireland’s Basic Income for Artists (€325 per week /£272), which was announced after TMS had made their application to Creative Scotland for this project.
Key Facts
Take Me Somewhere’s Artist Basic Income Pilot Ran for 10 months October 2022 – July 2023.
2 Live Performance Artists were selected to participate using a non-competitive lottery system after meeting certain criteria.
The value of the Basic Income was £213 per week, paid monthly. This was not a wage but a contribution towards living costs.
The participants were anonymous, and there were no expectations to produce any outcomes in response to the basic income.
The participating artists’ experiences were documented and evaluated using a combination of baseline questionnaire, monthly diaries, end of project questionnaire and exit interview.
The findings were collated into a summary report collated by Rosemary James-Beith, Research and Development Consultant in the Cultural sector.
Quotes from Evaluation Report (Pseudonyms used)
“We would make better work, high quality, intentional, beautiful work if we had financial security. Because it would inspire cross collaborations. It would inspire self-care. It would inspire inquiry or projects that take a really long time to come up with. Projects that need a lot of nurturing before they're ready for funding applications and residencies. If this kind of a thing were made more possible it would completely change the entire art sector. I'm incredibly grateful that they are doing this pilot project. And I think it's a wonderful idea and a beautiful experiment. And I think that… for me, the experience was not just financial gain. It was it was far more than that... I think it has it has shifted my practice in a positive way. And that shift will stay.” -- Alice (Pseudonym), Participant
“I got to go to New York… having that [ABI] I knew that just having that money at the end of the week, as well, I knew that I was going to go. So, it yes definitely, took a weight off my mind of whether I can go or not… And that was thanks to the [ABI]. So that was good.”-- Char (Pseudonym), Participant
‘Alice’ reported that the impact on their health and well-being has been:
‘…eye opening. I was able to provide better self-care, through taking movement practices I would not have afforded and being able to buy more high-quality food. I had a mental vacation from the stress of making ends meet. This has helped my overall well-being, outlook, and ability to connect with other artists as well.”
