Do artists benefit from Arts Policy? The Position of Artists in the Flemish Performing Arts Policy.

During the 1980s and 1990s continental European arts organisations invested largely into marketing and organisational management, resulting in professionalization, but also larger overhead costs. This raises important questions for the role and position of individual artists: do they benefit from professionalization? This paper examines the recent situation of individual artists in Flanders. In this paper we examine to what extent the growth of the arts budget since 2001 has been to the benefit of artists. This research is based on a data-analysis of unpublished source material on cost and income structure of Flemish performing arts organisations and the evolution of subsidies and labour costs within these budgets. Five conclusions are drawn, relevant not only to the Flemish situation but also of importance in an international perspective. Our findings confirm the internationally noticed paradox: the more the arts have been embedded within organisational and management structures, the more the situation of individual artists has become vulnerable.