I was fortunate to work this fall with a team of Arts Enterprise leaders, Kristen Hoverman (Chapter President, Bowling Green State University) and Jonathan Kuuskoski (Chapter President, University of Wisconsin-Madison) to conduct a national survey on arts entrepreneurship offerings in schools of music. Participants in the survey included current students from a variety of degree programs and former students who are pursuing careers in the arts. We asked them what they would want to learn about arts entrepreneurship and how they would want to learn it (former students were asked retrospectively). Participants were asked to relate to several versions of arts entrepreneurship definitions. They were also asked if they were interested in learning about arts entrepreneurship and how: in a class or series of classes, through a club/student group, in a lecture format, through experiential projects, or in some combination of these options.
Kristen, Jonathan, and I arrived at four big conclusions in our analysis of the collected data:
1. The reality of young professional artists is much different from the career for which they are prepared at schools of music.
2. Many students—and former students—want an arts entrepreneurship class that combines lecture- and project-based curricular education with a non-curricular arts entrepreneurship club or student group.
3. Results indicated an overall lack of awareness of and participation in existing arts entrepreneurship offerings on college campuses.
4. Participants want an arts entrepreneurship educational program that is personalized towards their needs and takes into account the realities of the post-graduate 21st-century artist.
How can we interpret these results? Although only 55 professionals were surveyed, not one participant had a career in which they only performed, and only one participant had a career performing in one orchestra and teaching privately. Thirty two percent of the respondents indicated that they taught on a college level; however, this proportion is probably skewed as the survey was disseminated primarily among college networks. The next largest category of professionals was “multiple job holder, some of which are in the arts.” I would hypothesize in reality this is probably the largest category with the performing jobs comprising less than half of an artist’s total income. Many young artist I know—some of whom may not have taken this survey—play in regional orchestras that pay anywhere from $35–65 per service, teach private lessons, and work some other job, in the restaurant or retail business, for example, to pay the remaining 75% of their income, and if they’re lucky, to get health insurance benefits.
Why has this happened? This isn’t a new problem, which is probably why we haven’t addressed it properly. Even before Mozart’s time, artists were poor, the lucky ones making their living as part of a royal court. Mozart and Beethoven—among the first glorified freelancers—were able to make money through commissions, although we know they were notably poor. But let’s go back to the late 20th and 21st century. Music schools are increasing in number and accepting more and more students than ever. Combine that with declining support for the arts and a poor economy and we have fewer and fewer arts jobs than ever before—in performing and administration. This is a basic supply-demand issue: too many musicians, not enough jobs. We seem to be aware of this:
From a student:
Right now [arts institutions] just push us out on the street with no idea of how to support ourselves! Most people end up getting dead-end jobs or giving up on their art entirely. That needs to change.
From graduate/professional:
Most music performance students are groomed and prepared only for careers as orchestral players, when in fact very few make a living doing only that. Almost every musician also teaches, administrates, does chamber music, organizes concerts, etc. as part of their careers, even those with decent orchestral jobs. We need to be prepared to understand business, marketing, and community relations to have maximum success in these endeavors.
Yet we are not doing enough to factor the above perceptions into music school education and prepare music students for sustainable careers in the arts. Rather, we prepare students for a tradition performance career that only exists for those musicians who secure jobs playing in major orchestras or who gain immediate management and tour the world as prominent soloists among the likes of Yo Yo Ma and Lang Lang. But detected in the student response is pessimism and fear, and in the professionals’ responses are realization, openness, and motivation. The questions now remains can we use the latter to inspire and empower the former?
Kristen, Jonathan, and I arrived at four big conclusions in our analysis of the collected data:
1. The reality of young professional artists is much different from the career for which they are prepared at schools of music.
2. Many students—and former students—want an arts entrepreneurship class that combines lecture- and project-based curricular education with a non-curricular arts entrepreneurship club or student group.
3. Results indicated an overall lack of awareness of and participation in existing arts entrepreneurship offerings on college campuses.
4. Participants want an arts entrepreneurship educational program that is personalized towards their needs and takes into account the realities of the post-graduate 21st-century artist.
How can we interpret these results? Although only 55 professionals were surveyed, not one participant had a career in which they only performed, and only one participant had a career performing in one orchestra and teaching privately. Thirty two percent of the respondents indicated that they taught on a college level; however, this proportion is probably skewed as the survey was disseminated primarily among college networks. The next largest category of professionals was “multiple job holder, some of which are in the arts.” I would hypothesize in reality this is probably the largest category with the performing jobs comprising less than half of an artist’s total income. Many young artist I know—some of whom may not have taken this survey—play in regional orchestras that pay anywhere from $35–65 per service, teach private lessons, and work some other job, in the restaurant or retail business, for example, to pay the remaining 75% of their income, and if they’re lucky, to get health insurance benefits.
Why has this happened? This isn’t a new problem, which is probably why we haven’t addressed it properly. Even before Mozart’s time, artists were poor, the lucky ones making their living as part of a royal court. Mozart and Beethoven—among the first glorified freelancers—were able to make money through commissions, although we know they were notably poor. But let’s go back to the late 20th and 21st century. Music schools are increasing in number and accepting more and more students than ever. Combine that with declining support for the arts and a poor economy and we have fewer and fewer arts jobs than ever before—in performing and administration. This is a basic supply-demand issue: too many musicians, not enough jobs. We seem to be aware of this:
From a student:
Right now [arts institutions] just push us out on the street with no idea of how to support ourselves! Most people end up getting dead-end jobs or giving up on their art entirely. That needs to change.
From graduate/professional:
Most music performance students are groomed and prepared only for careers as orchestral players, when in fact very few make a living doing only that. Almost every musician also teaches, administrates, does chamber music, organizes concerts, etc. as part of their careers, even those with decent orchestral jobs. We need to be prepared to understand business, marketing, and community relations to have maximum success in these endeavors.
Yet we are not doing enough to factor the above perceptions into music school education and prepare music students for sustainable careers in the arts. Rather, we prepare students for a tradition performance career that only exists for those musicians who secure jobs playing in major orchestras or who gain immediate management and tour the world as prominent soloists among the likes of Yo Yo Ma and Lang Lang. But detected in the student response is pessimism and fear, and in the professionals’ responses are realization, openness, and motivation. The questions now remains can we use the latter to inspire and empower the former?
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