OUR GOALPOSTS ARE FIXED -
OUR GOALPOSTS ARE FIXED -
HERE'S WHERE THEY ARE.
HERE'S WHERE THEY ARE.
We take the length and contents of your CV into consideration but we're choosing to measure your career stage based on how much money you make from your creative practice, and your proximity to The Establishment (organisations and venues in receipt of Multi Year Funding, and the extend to which your creative practice has been funded by Creative Scotland).
Income is not taboo - at the end of the day, it is a measure of how often we work and how much we charge or are paid for what we do. It's also an indicator of who in our sector needs to work other jobs in other sectors to maintain our creative careers. It all boils down to equity.
If you find more than one category exists, that's ok - the industry has not defined these terms, and there are enormous gulf between them. See the problems with this model section for more details.
We promise our offerings aimed at early career or emerging artists will actually to go to those artists.
THESE GOALPOSTS WON'T SHIFT.
You have at least one credit in any role on a theatre project that has been presented to a fee-paying audience.
You have not received funding or a commission for your creative practice.
You do not yet earn money from your freelance creative practice, or you earn very little.
You have at least one creative lead credit as a writer, director or producer on a theatre project that has been presented to a fee-paying audience.
You have some credits on other professional theatre projects, in any role at any level.
You have worked on at least one Creative Scotland funded project.
You earn a reasonable income from your freelance creative practice, but not nearly enough to live on.
You have worked at Associate level and/or have been the creative lead (writer, director or producer) on more than five theatre projects.
You have received Creative Scotland funding for projects in which you were the creative lead.
You have regularly collaborated with or are frequently hired to work with funded companies, venues and organisations on theatre projects.
The majority of your income comes from freelance creative work, but you may also have other income streams within the arts sector.
You either are or work for a funded organisation, or you regularly collaborate with funded organisations on theatre projects and creative work.
100% of your income is from freelance creative work and you do not need another job.
OR
You are paid a salary for creative work, though you may still also earn money on a freelance basis regularly.
The career ladder for artists in Scotland is broken.
This is a reminder to artists that sometimes our experience and our wages don't match up, and this is not our fault.
This is a call to established artists, companies and organisations to recognise their place in our industry and use their power and resources fairly.
We would expect an emerging artist to progress to mid-career level based on the wealth of their previous experience, but this is not the case.
We are aware that one year you may have mid-career experience and make a mid-career salary, and the next year you slide back down into the emerging artist income bracket despite the work you have to your name. This is a huge problem in the industry. There are, for example, Associate mid-career level directors working for emerging, assistant director wages because the opportunities to progress and use their skills in jobs that are intended for Associates are simply not there.
There are also many jobs at mid-career level that are simply not advertised and talent is hired behind closed doors based on personal connections. How is an emerging artist supposed to progress?
When we use money as a metric, experience can be overlooked. We are also aware that working on a Skills Exchange basis disrupts our own system of measuring experience based on income.
But - in the absence of funding, there has to be an alternative method of creating. And ultimately, we belive in an equitable distribution of existing funds. We believe that early career and emerging artists need access to financial support and Skills Exchanges as they are the groups most likely to be pushed out of the industry in the current climate.
We are aware that the emerging and mid-career levels are blurry when it comes to income. All we ask is that you are honest about where you are right now, and request Skills Exchanges in good faith so we may clearly identify who needs what from us, and the right support goes to those in need.