Art Festivals 101 Part 10: “How is the art business?”

So I am commonly asked, ” how is the art business?”  This is a an intriguing question and one that is more complex than it appears.  Let’s take a look at some of the different players in the arena..

Art collectors, buyers, galleries, consultants, exhibitions, guilds, associations, festivals, and artists are all key players in the field.  Since the economy has dipped and the unemployment rate has risen has the art market been affected?

According to a recent study released by the Colorado Council on the Arts, jobs that support the arts in Colorado make up the state’s fifth largest employment sector.  The report, “Colorado: State-of-the-Art, Key Findings from The State of Colorado’s Creative Economy,” shows that Colorado’s creative industries employ more than 122,000 people in approximately 8,000 organizations — 3.9 percent of the state’s estimated 3.2 million jobs.   Creative industries in Colorado employ more people than defense and security, agribusiness, food processing and technology.

• In 2007, the enterprises in this segment employed 14,000 individuals. As in performing arts much of the economic activity involved self-employment. Half of the visual arts and crafts.
• Colorado had 35,750 artists working in the state in 2000, which placed it fifth in terms of total artists per capita.
   

• Colorado ranked among the top ten states in the U.S. in every artistic category otherhan actors, dancers and choreographers, and announcers. 

   

The Boulder-Longmont region ranked in the top ten regions based on total artists, architects, designers, photographers, and writers and authors per capita. 

• The Fort Collins-Loveland region ranked in the top ten per capita for fine artists, art directors, and animators per capita.

• sector’s employment is in portrait studios, another 2,057 in fine arts schools, and the remaining 1,632 in art galleries.  The remaining employment in this sub-group, about 40 percent of the total, are self-employed artists and craftspeople. This total, however, misses, a large number of craftspeople who are classified in manufacturing sectors associated with their medium, such as ceramics, glass, or metal, or in retail operations. As a result, many of the jobs associated with the crafts industry are excluded from the total direct creative economy employment. 16% of arts organisations believe they are facing closure in the next 12 months, with a further 29% anticipating the need to scale back activity.