Visual artists and their struggle for market power

Market power is a term used to indicate the level of influence that one can exert on their surrounding market. Academics like Jeffry and Throsby have argued that visual artists generally lack market power and are therefore undergoing difficulties in securing a minimal income. A recent study conducted on Dutch artists indicated that more then 49% of visual artists earn less that ten thousand euro’s a year, which is an income below the national poverty level. Poverty among visual artists is not a new phenomenon, and it has been researched and described by several academics. Yet, while new improvement theories are being implemented through constantly changing cultural policy and artists aiding foundations, the majority of visual artists seem to remain poor. Recent changes in cultural policy are especially interesting because of the increased interest in exploiting creativity more efficiently, and stimulating entrepreneurial thinking among artists. The main question of this research is whether improvements should be made in the aid towards Dutch struggling visual artists. In order to formulate a well founded answer for this question three steps where undertaken. Firstly, the Dutch visual art market and its challenges for visual artists where described and analyzed in order to form an understanding of the main difficulties for artists in their process of building up a successful artistic career. Secondly, the available aid towards the visual art market through cultural policy was described in order to create an overview and to be able to analyze their overall and individual influence on the visual art market and their effectiveness in relation to the described market challenges. And the third step was to discuss the possible effectiveness of other theories that could further improve the conditions of the visual art market, and the individual market situation of struggling visual artists. The aim of this research is to create useful insights on the matter of struggling visual artists market situation and the influence and effectiveness of related cultural policy, strategies of aiding foundations and new improvement theories. In order to achieve this aim an interaction was created between three different perspectives. These perspectives came forth out of the review of cultural economic literature, the strategies behind cultural policy and activities of artists aiding foundations, and qualitative in:depth interviews with struggling visual artists. The choice to undertake qualitative in:depth interviews with struggling visual artists has been made due to its ability to explore their personal attitudes, values, views and interpretations, which has led to a better understanding of their struggle for market power. By putting the results of the interviews in context to related cultural economic literature and the strategies behind cultural policy and artists aiding foundations, this research has been able to create insights into the effectiveness of the available aid towards the visual art market. The results of this research have brought forth a set of recommendations that will ideally lead to a decline of the high level of poverty among visual artists.