Entrepreneurship and conservatory students:

The existing literature suggests that the self-employment rate in the arts is far exceeding that of other sectors. This is confirmed by data retrieved from the Central Bureau of Statistics stating that the self-employment rate in the arts sector is around 70%. An important task of higher art schools is to prepare their students in the best possible way for the future labour market. In the light of higher art education this means a future labour market with high levels of self-employment and an oversupply of artists. In this case this would mean attention for self-employment and entrepreneurship and the training of entrepreneurial or business skills in art school curricula. A trend towards a more entrepreneurial curriculum on art schools is described in the literature. This research investigates if the trend that is described towards a curriculum with a substantial focus on the training of entrepreneurial and business skills is reflected on Dutch conservatories. The result of the questionnaire conducted at all locations of ArtEZ conservatory shows that there is an existing demand for the integration of more courses on the training of entrepreneurial and business skills in their curricula. The students show a significant willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-give-up for an extra course on entrepreneurship. The analysis shows how large this willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-give-up is and which determinants influence its level.