Sunday (4/22) in a lengthy article on Salon.com, Scott Timberg writes, “They’re pampered, privileged, indulged—part of the ‘cultural elite.’ They spend all their time smoking pot and sipping absinthe. To use a term that’s acquired currency lately, they’re entitled. And they’re not—after all—real Americans. This is what we hear about artists, architects, musicians, writers and others like them. And it’s part of the reason the struggles of the creative class in the 21st century—a period in which an economic crash, social shifts and technological change have put everyone from graphic artists to jazz musicians to book publishers out of work—has gone largely untold. Or been shrugged off. … The musicians, actors and other artists we hear about tend to be fabulously successful. But the daily reality for the vast majority of the working artists in this country has little to do with Angelina Jolie or her perfectly toned right leg. ‘Artists in the Workforce,’ a National Endowment for the Arts report released in 2008, before the Great Recession sliced and diced this class, showed the reality of the creative life. While most of the artists surveyed had college degrees, they earned—with a median income, in 2003-’05, of $34,800—less than the average professional.”
Posted April 23, 2012
