A Crisis of Sustainable Careers in the Culture and Creativity Sector
The Sustainable Futures Series is an edited publication by IFACCA that examines how independent artists and cultural workers are affected by the crisis of sustainable careers.
Contributing partners underline the paradox of importance of culture in everyone’s lives yet its systematic undervalue, resulting in career risks for cultural workers that have a real impact on their lives.
A major contributing factor to this crisis of sustainability is the invisibility of cultural work as labor, as well as the invisibility of cultural workers as rightful members of a society’s work force. As far as people are concerned, creating art is not viewed as work that automatically qualifies for the same benefits as other types of labour, such as fair wages and social security; rather, it is regarded as a hobby that celebrates everyday creativity, or as a luxury that can only be pursued professionally by the financially privileged. It is in this context that the report seeks to reaffirm that artists and cultural workers are, first and foremost, workers, entitled to basic rights as such. Professionals from CCSs who work in non-standard forms of employment such as freelancers or in a less regulated informal economy are particularly at risk. Recognition of CCSs as legitimate members of society, as well as part of the social and economic fabric of society, is essential to ensure basic dignity for the workers, as well as greater visibility for the sector as a whole. Until cultural workers are seen as part of a larger labor force, their working conditions cannot be improved.
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