No wonder London is losing its artists, we are pricing them out

Antony Micallef
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Antony Micallef12 July 2023
WEST END FINAL

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As the cost of living crisis deepns it’s beginning to leave a permanent fault line that is getting wider every year.After years of cutting funding to state schools and curtailing arts education, the disparities between the haves and have nots in our capital are clearer than ever. This financial gap has created a permanent divergence in our city that acts like a moat preventing people from working class backgrounds from achieving a career in the arts. I personally see myself as one of the last generations of artists from a blue collar background who were lucky enough to have had help that supported me realising my dream of becoming a full time artist living in London.

Shocking survey

A forthcoming survey, reported on by the Guardian, is eye opening. Only 12 per cent of those surveyed said they can support themselves solely through art.

An announcement of an extension to City Hall’s Creative Enterprise Zones is at least planned. This is a life line and concentrates on creating permanent, affordable, creative workspaces and live-work spaces at below-market rents while ensuring no net loss of space.

Trying to become an artist from less advantaged backgrounds in this city has become extremely difficult, with ever increasing rents. The waiting lists for supposedly “affordable” studio rents have become eye-watering. Meanwhile the price of everyday materials, including paints, brushes and so on goes up.

Many artists are forced to leave London as it’s just becoming unsustainable. Some artists I have spoken to have told me of their decision to leave the art world entirely for the sake of their mental health and financial security. Two of my very first studios in London were in Kensal Rise over 10 years ago. But both of these studio complexes have now been converted into luxury flats.

The framework that enabled me to move to London and sustain myself by my own work is no longer there. London can’t just be a place to show and exhibit work. The fusion between the ‘makers’ and the display spaces (or even houses) where the final product is displayed add a cohesion to the city. A cultural thread is embedded in the city that builds it into a cultural hub.

When we go to our supermarkets we want sustainable products, which we know the provenance of (and which, ideally, are local). This creates a webof employment thats helps the local community. It’s the same thing with art.

Repurpose office space

We cannot just rely on bluechip Mayfair galleries where the majority of the art will come from a more international, financially secure base. Post-pandemic seemed to me the perfect time to integrate more working creative spaces around the city. There are acres of empty spaces and vacant offices. More people work from home. So why don’t we use this as an opportunity to set up some cheaper creative working spaces? This could also attract more affluent business alongside making for more diverse, lively areas rather than dead office space.

The “creative class” is mostly made up of people from privileged backgrounds. As we look at other countries where the social divide is even greaterand market forces are even more extreme, the percentage of those from working class backgrounds in creative jobs decreases further. This grim portent poitns to where we are headed. In America it’s predominantly the middle classes who make art. And in the Middle East, for example, where the social framework is even more divided it’s only really the upper classes who can make a living as artists.

In order to have a healthy, creative, and culturally rich country we need some basic elements in place: from education to affordable work spaces. We currently have a government that favours science and considers art a “soft” subject.

But if you look at life and education through the spectrum of one colour instead of the whole prism you are left with an impoverished vision of life.

Of course there is only so much money in the pot, but the creative industries were until recently one of our biggest industries. They were worth 28.3 billion in 2018 alone, though that is now declining. Weakening the support for the arts shows a short sighted ignorance and an unwillingness to understand our own strengths as a nation.

On top of this our creaking economy is knocked by higher customs fees and greater trade barriers thanks to Brexit. That has kneecapped the art industry too. Until we decide a clear path and have some new inventive ideas of progression we will stay stuck Immobilised by our short sightedness, lacking any clear direction, the risk of sinking is real.

Antony Micallef is a British contemporary artist and painter working in London

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