NESTA PROJECT: FINE ARTSITS AND INNOVATION

3. The reputation as an artist among the general public.
4. The recognition among other artists.
5. The quality of the artistic work produced (which
means that artistic ‘quality’ must be defined
somehow).
6. Membership in a professional artists’ group or
association.
7. Professional qualifications (graduation from art
school).
8. The subjective self-evaluation of being an artist.
Butler adds a ninth methodological criterion to this list,
drawing on a number of studies published since Frey and
Pommerehne: the presence in a directory of artists (2000: 4).
This review focuses on studies in two main categories: artists’
employment, income and careers; and studies of graduates
in creative art and design.
Our focus is on ‘artistic trained labour’ (as defined in Section
2.3 of this review). Butler notes that some studies which
define artists by professional qualifications or graduation from
art schools “filter out alumni who have given up art for other
fields” (2000: 4). Our study elects not to employ this filter, and
specifically includes those who have ‘given up art’ in order
to probe their reasons and to determine the extent to which
their formal (and informal) fine art training has affected their
economic, social and cultural experiences in these ‘other
fields’.
4.1.1 UK studies of artists’ employment and careers
Recent studies of artists’ employment, income and careers in
the UK include a wide variety of artists, primary focuses, data
sources and quantitative and qualitative methodologies.
In her review, Shaw differentiates between studies of artists
based on census data, Standard Occupational Classification
(SOC) categories and Labour Force Surveys, and
independent studies commissioned to a brief. She argues
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