Creativity, vocation, career

The production of art and culture often occurs at the interface of work and leisure; the professional and the amateur. It is also common to regard ‘being an artist’ whether remunerated or not, as a calling or vocation and so outside the formal structures, discourses, and frameworks of work. This positioning is highly problematic and there is a need for cultural policy to engage with the varied conditions and experiences of cultural production, including the forms of practice that occur on the margins of what it categorizes as ‘excellence’. Cultural policy should also be informed by an understanding of arts education which is a critical site of enculturation and the adoption of an identity as artist as well as influencing expectations of a cultural career.