ixia, which describes itself as England's public art think tank, has just published its first survey of the public art sector in England (while responses were received from the other nations of the UK, they were too few for the results to be statistically robust). Almost 700 people took part, of whom around 500 worked directly in the sector, whether as artists, consultants or in local government.
As ixia acknowledges, the sector is a fragmented one, which makes this survey particularly useful. The respondents believed that public art's most important role is in shaping national and regional identity. Among the survey's other findings:
- In England, during 2010-11, there was an active and core public art sector of at least 1,250 people in a market worth at least £56m
- The public art sector is largely driven by private sector money aligned to public sector policy. ixia estimates that 80% of public art funding can be linked to public art policies within local authorities and the regeneration, health and education sectors
- The average cost of a public art project commissioned by a local authority, or via the regeneration, health and education sectors is approximately £73,000
- Many artists are optimistic about the future, but those workers closer to funding sources are much more pessimistic, predicting a fall of around 40% in the overall size of the market during 2011-12
- There are approximately 500 artists working in public art in England, with around 40% earning less than £10,000 last year
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