BFAMFAPhD
Single-channel video
06:45
2014
Written by: Susan Jahoda, Blair Murphy, Caroline Woolard
Sound: Dia Felix
Voice: Susan Jahoda, Art Jones
Demographic Analyst: Vicky Virgin
Animation: Zipeng Zhu
Artists Report Back, Animated uses data about artists’ demographics, occupations, educational attainment, field of degree, and earnings as recorded by The Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey (ACS) to make statements about the current conditions and contradictions of working artists and arts graduates. For example, in the United States, 40 percent of working artists do not have a bachelors degree in any field. Only 10 percent of arts graduates are working artists.Though arts graduates may acquire additional opportunities and skills from attending art school, arts graduates are likely to graduate with significant student loan debt, which makes working as an artist difficult, if not impossible. Given the discrepancy between working artists and arts graduates, as well as the rising cost of tuition at art schools, the report ends with recommendations for policy makers, administrators, and educators.
Read the written report, Artists Report Back, here: dropbox.com/s/3hai7psdenrbqec/BFAMFAPhD_ArtistsReportBack2014.pdf?dl=0
Interact with national data: censusreport.bfamfaphd.com
This video is on view at Crossing Brooklyn: Art of Bushwick, to Bed-Stuy, and Beyond, on view at the Brooklyn Museum through January 4, 2015. See our installation at the Brooklyn Museum: brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/crossing_brooklyn/
