Securing career opportunities and professional employment for artists

Sustaining a productive artistic career

Regardless of whether the artist is working in a company or independently, it is the individual who makes the commitment to develop and maintain their practice and produce art that we celebrate and are inspired by.

A sustainable career in the arts is one that:

• activates practical and focused investment of time, ideas, and resources
• demonstrates a culture of sound planning and foreseeable outcomes
• is self-directed and contributes to the development and vibrancy of the nation’s arts profile
• is rewarded and recognised for its value in the nation’s cultural heart

Artists run micro-businesses. They need to gather the resources to enable them to train, experiment and create art. Supporting artists to be able to plan well, envision their professional pathways and achieve their goals is an important and sensible strategy that provides short and long-term assurances to the artist. But artists need more than money: they need the skills to operate in a constantly changing environment and take the risks necessary to define and re-define their art form boundaries. Sustainability is the critical key aspect of being an artist.

How SCOPE was funded

SCOPE began as a pilot program that we initiated with the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) in 2005, based on its National Athlete and Career Education (NACE) program. It was then launched in 2006 as a strategic initiative of the Australia Council, which went on to invest more than $1m in the program over the following five years, in partnership with the ASC and Ausdance. The funding enabled us to support the administration of the program, a team of career counsellors, and a professional development fund that serviced 99 artists.