‘Undervalued and Overworked’: How Young Chicago Artists Make A Living Without a Living Wage

Artists on the South and West sides rely on free or subsidized community housing and the support of mission-driven arts organizations to maintain their art practices. 

By Jasmine Barnes [Excerpt from City Bureau]

Refusing the ‘starving artist’ trope

Working as a teaching artist is a common way artists find reliable, paid work and share their craft with others. These types of jobs pay around $30 per hour on average in Illinois, compared to just above $26 per hour nationally, according to Indeed.

Marwen, an arts nonprofit based in River North, offers programs and resources for young people, often inviting them back as adults to work as emerging teaching artists. Nakiya’h Longstreet spent much of his middle and high school years developing his portfolio at Marwen offices, preparing to apply to arts school, he said.

Maricela Ramirez, the organization’s senior manager of outreach and youth pathway programs, was one of Longstreet’s mentors. She sees Longstreet as one student who took her advice to heart: bringing a values-driven, entrepreneurial approach to his creative pursuits as a way to navigate the highs and lows of a career in the arts.

As a college art student, Longstreet recently returned to the organization to offer a workshop to the next wave of young artists.

“I feel like it’s a very crucial time to have the arts as a way of bringing people together, and also for folks [to] use art as a tool for social change,” Ramirez said. “In my programming, [I] really show young people that you have the agency and you have the power and the brilliance to make a difference in our communities.”

Reflecting on her work with young people, Ramirez said financial anxiety and the fear of being a “starving artist” comes up regularly.  

“The most common trend that we see is young people just being scared of not making money because they feel like art is just like a hobby,” Ramirez said. 

Read the full article at City Bureau