Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
25 February 2020 Vol 5 No 4 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2020
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
A recent report by Hill Strategies, an Ontario-based cultural research firm, crunches the numbers on artists’ incomes.
I’ll cut to the chase: If you’re an artist making more than $24,000 a year, you’re doing well, statistically speaking.
Just don’t compare yourself to other Canadian workers, whose median income was $49,300, if male, and $38,600, if female.
The study is based on 2016 census data, so it's a bit dated. But at the moment it is the best snapshot we have of the economic health of a variety of artists, including writers, musicians, dancers, performers and visual artists.
As with the larger Canadian workforce, there's a gender gap. Female artists have a median income of $22,300, compared to $27,100 for male artists. An even grimmer situation faces racialized and Indigenous artists, who have median incomes of $18,200 and $16,600, respectively.
This is just a bare-bones sketch. I recommend going to the report for more information. Its sobering realities make one admire all the more artists who find ways to not only survive but thrive.
We look at several such artists in this issue of Galleries West, including Calgary's Katie Ohe and Rita McKeough, who have major shows this winter in Alberta.
We also write about two Inuit artists – the late Alootook Ipellie, whose work is on view in Winnipeg, and Kablusiak, a finalist for this year's Sobey Art Award, who is showing at the Jarvis Hall Gallery in Calgary.
Rounding out this issue are reports on a group show, Crocodile Tears, at a relatively new commercial gallery in Vancouver, Unit 17, and a solo show by ceramics artist Robert Froese in Moose Jaw, Sask.
Looking ahead, watch for a story about a Rembrandt exhibition touring to Edmonton and Regina, as well as one about Vivian Maier, an American street photographer whose journey to posthumous fame reads like a Hollywood script.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Dick Averns, Beverly Cramp, Paul Gessell, Maureen Latta, Lissa Robinson, Katherine Ylitalo