Multihyphenates, Serious Artists, and Class Barriers – Studying the Starving Artist

By Danny Maggs

“The spirit of Romanticism was embodied in the stereotypical image of the starving artist living in a garret – an image that glamorized the precarious position of the artist and communicated a powerful new definition of the avant-garde artist as a Bohemian rebel, outsider, and social critic who sacrificed status, money, and material comfort for the supposed freedom this afforded the imaginative spirit to pursue individual creative expression” - Alison Bain

Initially embarking on this research journey, I was genuinely apprehensive about whether or not I’d be able to represent this phenomenon clearly. 

I’m far from what one might consider a starving artist – I have fairly stable income and, though I’m busy working multiple jobs in addition to working on my Master’s degree, I’ve never had and hopefully never will have to worry about housing or food. When I initially pitched this idea as one of my potential capstone projects, truthfully, I didn’t expect it to be selected. When it was, I found myself facing the daunting task of relating to and deeply examining the idea of the starving artist.

Framing the Inquiry

As my research and conversations with my team progressed, however, I realized that there’s so much more to the notion than I thought. It wasn’t just necessarily about sacrificing financial comfort (whether by choice or by necessity); but about sacrificing everything personal for your art. It’s not just about being able to afford supplies; it’s about being able to assimilate yourself into elitist institutions. And it’s not just about having to work multiple jobs to stay afloat; it’s about arguing for the validity of yourself as an artist while not working exclusively with your art. 

In my literature reviewing, I divided the findings into three distinct yet interrelated sections: 

  • The Starving Artist

  • Elitism

  • What is a Serious Artist?

As with many issues of the creative industries, a frequent conclusion was that there is more to study and more work to be done in order to fully grasp the consequences of these perceptions and where they come from. 

However, there is an abundance of existing literature and conversations - what we refer to as “documented knowledge” at Creative Generation -  around these subjects, and I learned many surprising and exciting things. 

What I learned from the Documented Knowledge

Studying The Starving Artist, I learned that there’s not a lot of truth to the idea that all artists live in poverty or with disproportionate job insecurity relative to other careers and industries. Studies like Filer (1986) and SNAAP (2011) have shown that there’s little evidence to the claim that being an artist is more financially difficult than any other job. Of course, it comes with its differences: artists often acquire post-graduate education at higher rates than many careers; more of them are self-employed than other careers; and—perhaps most relevant to my capstone—many of them hold multiple jobs concurrently. This multihyphenate nature of the working artist is a key part of my interview process and thinking for this project (see Jordan Campbell’s presentation on multihyphenate identities in the 2022 Association of Arts Administration Educators Conference and Creative Generation’s inquiry on the topic).

My next section, Elitism, delved into not only defining the “elite,” but fighting against it as well. Perricone (2018) and Foreman-Wernet (2017) both explain that the elite, in the arts, are designated by their “taste,” which is designated by their experiences, education, and socialization. This creates a class barrier for those without the financial means to develop the “taste” the elite deems necessary. Koontz (2021) chimes in to explain how the benefits of being elite have depreciated recently—large arts institutions are realizing that exclusion does not serve them well. But there’s still a question of whether their efforts to move away from these practices are genuine or superficial. 

Finally, What is a Serious Artist? It’s an interesting question, and even more interesting to read about because there really is no one true answer. Bain (2005) explores this question through an examination of philosophy and a series of interviews with professional artists, most of whom have quite strongly-held personal definitions of artistry, each with specific and arguably strict criteria. Conversely, a 2021 Reddit Post asks the same question, and is met with notably different responses. The consensus there seems to be that artistry is self-defined, with the only criteria being that you believe it is so for yourself. 

Will we ever truly be able to define a starving artist and predict all it will entail? That’s unlikely. But for as long as these conversations are had, we will continuously interrogate these questions, and those like them, in search of clarity. 

Check out the full Overview of Documented Knowledge: The Starving Artist here.