Instrumentos de recolección de datos.

Most of the artists spoke, very modestly, of their sense of entitlement in relation to their position as an artist and their right to practice their art. These artists did not display an arrogance in the pursuit of their practice but this idea of the entitlement permeated their view of art as something valid and worthy of their time, hard work and perseverance in developing their practice without much or any financial reward. This attitude, or confidence, holds as an important preparation for the challenges which the artists might face at all stages of their career; particularly in those first few years after art school where the struggle to continue their practice is often the most difficult. Ben explains how artists have to keep making work and doing shows, they have to make great efforts to remain visible. He stated that,

“you have to throw yourself out there. […] I think everything goes cold immediately unless you’re sort of assertive. I think a lot of people would do things […] and try and set up exhibitions with friends; recirculate. It’s almost like you are recirculating yourself, I don’t know. Proving you’re still alive somehow” (Ben: 5) During art school and in the first few succeeding years, artists must find their own ways to get their work shown - either in exhibitions in their own homes, in empty retail units or by working with grassroots arts organisations. The development of an artist’s work and practice is very heavily weighted on exhibitions as they provide a new context within which to see the work, an opportunity for peers and critics to begin a dialogue around the work; and crucially the ability for gallerists and collectors to potentially see the work – which may lead to offers of future shows or fruitful discussions around their practice and future opportunities. The early shows artists participated in were rarely about selling work but in a sense the artists were trying to showcase their work and develop the skills and competencies that they would need later in their careers, the elements which contribute to their artistic capital.

Artist run spaces and galleries arise as a response to emerging artists having the drive and energy to be making work and looking for places to show it. In many cities there are usually spaces run by individuals, artist collectives and committees which offer artists opportunities to show their work, chances to network with their peers, and also to

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develop skills in exhibition organising. Artist-run spaces most commonly service emerging artists in the stage after college or art school and, additionally, provide a platform for artists to become embedded in a new locale. This collective response can be seen as a solution to the challenges of establishing a career as an artist.

Artist-run spaces are often regarded as an integral part of the structure of the art world, particularly as they service a community of emerging artists and strengthen the network the artists are working in. It is a further example of how artists can develop their artistic and social capital in the early stages of their career through the expansion of the networks, within artist run collectives, through their activities engaging with other artists through their exhibition programme, through the opportunities for exhibition of their work and via critical dialogue around their own and wider contemporary artistic practice.

Many of the artists noted that even after art school many of their talented peers had shelved their creative practices, either partially or wholly, in favour of pursuing a career either elsewhere in the art world, in galleries or arts organisations, or in other fields entirely. Sophie stated,

“it's really difficult for artists leaving art school and that’s the most fragile point I think. I mean that’s when most people stop making work altogether and just realise that they can’t. And they maybe they end up getting a job and never go back to making art and I know so many people who have done that, really good artists who just stop making work because they can’t afford to.” (Sophie: 4)

The remaining artists can be said to embody an artistic logic in its entirety, whereby they pursue their artistic endeavours despite financial struggles and with an acceptance that their creative outputs may never be able to fully support them in financial terms. In these early stages, the artists were guided by a commitment to the pursuit of enhancing and developing their artistic skills and artistic capital. Thus artists’ understanding of what constituted making a living was something that did not really come to the fore.

4.5 Conclusion

This chapter has introduced and applied the concept of artistic capital to the research question of whether there is a tension between artistic and commercial in artistic careers,

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as well as how that might be understood and managed. I have identified that artistic capital is developed from art school onwards and is seen as a subcategory of Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital. As such, elements of cultural capital are also addressed in this chapter, particularly the influence of inherited cultural capital in childhood, which can be seen to contribute to an appreciation for the arts. In spite of Bourdieu’s findings that inherited cultural capital holds significant influence in terms of offering distinct personal and professional advantages to those who possess it over those with much less cultural capital before art school, this is not the case with artistic capital since it is seen as a distinct form of capital with its own rules and requirements - as identified in this chapter. It is important to identify that at this stage, although I consistently refer to artists as building artistic capital, that this is not something they are necessarily conscious of, and not something that that they explicitly reference using terms like artistic, social or economic capital. Through adopting the theoretical framework of capitals to organise the empirical data, I have been able to see their activities as aligning with artistic capital and have chosen to structure the chapter to demonstrate this. Through this chapter I have drawn several elements into the understanding of artistic capital. In summary, artistic capital is seen to have two distinct elements: the symbolic embodiment of the artistic ideal, art for art’s sake, which is accompanied by artistic talent, or at least artistic skills; and knowledge of contemporary, and even historical, artistic practice. Artists can continue to develop their cultural capital more broadly but there are specific elements which contribute to the development of artistic capital and which are held as particularly valuable by the sub-field of restricted production. Therefore artists’ activities are driven to develop elements which will contribute to their artistic capital.

All of the interviewed artists studied art prior to embarking on a career as an artist and thus have, in some ways, been prepared for a career – be that formally, informally or in reaction to a perceived notion of unpreparedness. The artists in this study graduated from art school as recently as seven years ago and as long as forty years ago but they share a common tale of how unprepared they were for entry into the art market. These aspiring artists have often come from backgrounds where their parents have followed more traditional career models, including electricians and factory workers and as such the artists rely upon art school as one of their main sources of knowledge and skills development for their future careers. In developing their practice artists are simultaneously developing their artistic capital. Many of the artists had been privileged to

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a degree where they had found encouragement during their adolescence to pursue their interest in artistic endeavours which has led to their current career path. There was a degree to which the lifestyle of an artist became more of a draw than an interest in developing their artistic talent. Their early acceptance that being an artist would likely not lead to making very much money was a reality that they were ready to accept to pursue their dreams of being artists.

This chapter has alluded to the dominance art schools have in developing artistic and social capital whilst excluding economic capital from their training. Art schools do not exclude the commercial explicitly, rather they ensure that commercial elements are excluded from training and assessment which might be seen to contribute to how artists deeply embrace the artistic logic of art for art’s sake over any association with the market. When the artists describe their role models, their interest was less on money, economic capital, and more, as Bourdieu describes (1993) on a lifestyle and on the status attached to being a living, working artist who is exhibiting work; interest is more in developing their social and artistic capital.

Despite their dependence on art school as often their sole source of information on how to understand and negotiate in the art market, many are leaving without a sound understanding of the skills or knowledge necessary to function in the art market. Of central importance in the development of an artistic career is artistic capital: which can contribute to their learning of the rules of the game, developing their artistic skills and knowledge of contemporary and historical artistic practice; as well as its important role in signalling this knowledge and understanding to others in the field. The experience of working within arts schools was important in enabling artists to develop practices in a space that was protected by the institutions. Developing their ideas around artistic practice as well as their knowledge of the processes of research and experimentation all contributed to a considerable development in their artistic capital.

Many of the interviewed artists contributed to, and some even founded, a strong tradition of organising their own exhibitions and opportunities. For some the DIY approach continues to permeate throughout their career. In the early stages of artists’ careers the self-organised culture was essential in providing opportunities for emerging artists to showcase work and develop their practice. Exhibiting was highlighted as a key activity in giving artists a context to make new work, respond to audiences and continue the

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processes of experimentation that they began at art school. Through these opportunities to exhibit, the artists were able to develop a body of work which they then used to leverage further opportunities through using their portfolio to apply to residencies and in funding applications. Exhibiting also acted to showcase the artist’s work and sometimes this would lead to offers of opportunities and higher profile for the artist and their work. Art school has importance in terms of how artists acquire artistic capital (in the embodied form), but the physical work (objectified artistic capital) they make is of less importance. In the future, applications for public funding will rely on work artists make after art school, as demonstrated through the artist’s portfolio. It may be the case that this work is a development of existing work but it is the continued development which is important rather than the student work. For some, obviously, there is a close relationship between their student outcomes and later work but artists are still expected to be continuing to develop their artistic capital beyond their time at art school, they cannot rely on the artistic capital they have developed through art school, they are expected to continue to build this, demonstrating their developments through their artistic work. This raises the issue that artistic capital needs to be constantly enhanced and refreshed in order to increase in value, since it rests on developments in an artist’s practice and knowledge, rather than the more fixed nature of degree qualifications which might be seen to maintain a relative value throughout. Artistic capital acquired at art school needs to be constantly updated, it cannot sit idle or it depreciates.

There were other important aspects about art school - in particular the role of socialisation and critical dialogue. After the ‘group crit’ structures of art school some artists tried to set up new structures to continue this mode of dialogue into their emerging career but they soon realised that other than socially, dialogue around their work was no longer the domain of their peers. Artists become responsible for the maintenance and enhancement of their own artistic capital during art school and this sets them up for how their careers, working predominantly alone, will require that they continue to develop artistic capital of their own volition – since the structures of art school are no longer there. The role of developing social capital, networks with peers, the significance of maintaining visibility for artists and their work and so forth, is dealt with in more detail in the next chapter. Additionally, aspects of developing artistic capital feed into the development and maintenance of other forms of capital and as such each chapter, although focussed on a distinct form of capital, speaks to one another productively.

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CHAPTER 5

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5.0DEVELOPING SOCIAL CAPITAL: THE ROLE OF NETWORKS