published: 16-12-2020
The Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission (DG EAC) has published a study carried out by Panteia and several experts from the European Expert Network on Culture and Audiovisual (EENCA) on the status and working conditions of artists and cultural and creative professionals in the European Union.
Artists and cultural and creative sector professionals are often in a precarious situation, working on a self –employed or freelance basis, often for relatively low incomes. Given the additional context of the COVID-19 pandemic, many artists and creative professionals are left without any regular sources of income.
This study explores the status and the working conditions of artists and creative professionals in the European Union, which includes an examination of the career paths of artists and cultural and creative professionals and subjects such as entrepreneurship, nature of income, and influence of the market, access to finance, social security and cross-border mobility. The study considers working conditions in a larger sense, and includes aspects such as artistic freedom/restrictions to creation, the aspect of working conditions of disadvantaged groups, and the specific working conditions of young people (in particular with view to the gig/platform economy, precariousness due to project-oriented jobs and self-employment). The study also considers aspects of creative professions such as hidden unemployment in the cultural and creative sectors as well as the physical places and conditions where work of artists and creative professionals takes place.
The study provides proposals for measures to address the identified challenges with the aim of improving the working conditions of artists and creative professionals, with some specific measures taken at EU and Member States level provided to counter the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. The study identifies roles for both the European Commission and the Member States in achieving improved working conditions for those working in the cultural and creative sectors.
The final report, executive summary and the conclusions and recommendations can be found here.