With 86% of internships in the creative sector unpaid, it’s hard for disadvantaged young people to get a foothold. Russell Martin considers what working in the future could look like.
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Getting a job in the arts has always been challenging for all but the most connected, most privileged young people. Chronic low pay favours those with family wealth. In 2014, 92% of arts workers were from more advantaged backgrounds.
Middle-class people tend to arrive in jobs with a knowledge of the working culture that helps them fit in and get ahead. And a belief in meritocracy among those at the top reinforces the idea that hard work alone pays off, minimising the importance of free labour as an entry barrier.
Imposter syndrome stops many working-class young people applying for arts jobs in the first place, and a lack of representation on interview panels subtly reinforces who is expected to get the job.
Unpaid internships in the arts are at the sharpest end of this inequality. Despite evidence that they don’t even provide an advantage for future employment, that they shut out people who can’t work for free, and that they are borderline illegal, unpaid arts internships remain popular.
Towards a new vision of working practices
Aiming to combat these barriers, Artquest has run an internship programme for over 10 years. Our model shows how graduates from lower socio-economic backgrounds can get into the arts and, ultimately, into more representative arts leadership.
The programme pays above the London Living Wage, provides clear line management and a job description, proper induction, mentoring support, progress reviews and, uniquely, five days of paid annual leave. It also guarantees a reference to help interns get their next job.
Since 91% of arts organisations have fewer than 4 employees, interns are placed in small-scale London arts organisations, increasing their staff resources and reflecting the environments interns are most likely to get future jobs in. In some cases, the intern made up one third of the total workforce.
If it was hard for young working-class people to get a first job before the pandemic, Covid made it even harder. A boon taken for granted by so many, digital access is a significant barrier to low-income households who are more likely to have limited, slower, and shared internet connections. Younger artists, who are more likely to share accommodation, often also lack private or quiet spaces to meet online or work at home.
Looking for ways to develop the programme, we commissioned Dr Charlotte Webb of the UAL Creative Computing Institute to help us understand the potential for hybrid internships, where work could take place from an intern’s home or at the office when restrictions and shielding allowed.
Evaluating our interns’ and hosts’ experience, we have a new vision of working practice for small-scale arts organisations committed to improving representation of working-class people in the arts.
The future of your workplace
The future arts workplace looks pretty much like it does now. We’re still in offices, but some of them are shared between different organisations. Since our staff work regular days at home, we can share both accommodation and some back-office functions while remaining independent, saving money and cutting carbon emissions.
The move to hybrid working means video conferencing equipment is cheaper and more integrated, providing a more streamlined experience. Sometimes, people even just speak on the phone.
Workers with caring responsibilities (23% of artists we survey, including 13% of new graduates) and disabled people (17%) are more included because they get the flexibility and support they need.
Everyone understands when they’re expected to be in the office and come in because they need to or want to, not just because they have to. Regular hybrid team meetings provide informal mixing as well as a check-in to adapt working patterns as lives change.
Digital tools encourage people to switch off at the end of the day. As a result, carbon emissions, rent and bills are lower, team dynamics are healthier, and international collaboration the norm.
The application process
People hear about jobs through adverts on social networks, art press, word of mouth, company newsletters, HE and FE colleges: and a range of non-arts newspapers and websites to maintain a new balanced workforce representation.
Applications are simple, ask only the questions they need to, and are based on potential rather than experience. Given that a high proportion of arts workers are neurodiverse, dyslexic, or speak English as a second language, alternative formats include auto-transcription of spoken applications and video.
Where an application needs to be more complex, access funding is provided to cover childcare or accessibility provision for whoever needs it. AI enables all candidates to get feedback on their applications, with recommendations for other jobs in other organisations they might be suitable for.
Interviews can be conducted online or in person, depending on the location of everyone involved, the digital skills required for the post, everyone’s personal preference, and the interviewee’s digital capabilities. Interview questions are shared in advance giving people time to prepare, making interviews more like the work to be performed than a test.
A ‘life first’ working culture
When people are first employed, they meet everyone in the organisation as part of their induction. Line management is clear and job descriptions are reviewed annually along with pay. New starters are supported with proactive conversations on their challenges and achievements.
Given the need for data privacy, everyone has a work laptop with remote access to wipe the memory if it should be lost or stolen. Internet access is partly supported with an identifiable amount in everyone’s pay. This reduces barriers for people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
People with accommodation that makes it hard to work from home are prioritised for office time. New starters are also prioritised, which means a temporary change in manager working patterns too.
Isolation and imposter syndrome in new staff is combatted with a new emphasis on mental health and wellbeing for all staff. Everyone understands that flexibility works both ways, with a more committed staff team enjoying a ‘life first’ working culture: in parental leave, career breaks, secondments and part-time work. When colleagues are away, temporary posts maintain continuity and provide an opportunity for training and development of potential staff.
As a result, organisations are more dynamic and representative. Audiences can ‘see themselves’ in the arts workforce, and are more likely to engage, donate, and buy. A more diverse workforce brings new ideas, stronger strategies, and gets involved in its local community, sharing space and making democratic programme decisions that matter.
Oh, and whenever a new virus disrupts close human contact, it’s much easier this time to work from home.
What needs to change?
For a long time, the arts sector has thought of itself as open-minded and meritocratic – making the over-representation of relatively more privileged people something of an anomaly.
The pandemic has caused enough disruption to our traditional working practices, and enough opportunity for experiment, to make radical change for a more representative workforce. At its core, this is going to mean better pay – for artists, for arts administrators, and especially for those entering the sector.
36% of artists in 2021 had financial dependents, but 66% had less than 3 months savings. While this precarity continues, the arts will not be a sustainable career for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
We who work in the arts also need to abandon our expectations about who we work with. We need to actively challenge our own biases and explore how these biases inform our recruitment and promotion processes. Ultimately, we need to approach one another with respect.
Russell Martin is an artist and the director of Artquest.
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