Creative Pulse: Survey on artists & CCS professionals status

The Creative Pulse report concerns the status and working conditions of artists and cultural professionals across Europe. The research has been conducted from December 2023 to February 2024, and collected the responses from 1204 artists and cultural professionals, as well as 293 cultural organizations, institutions, and policymakers.

The survey reveals the conditions of professionals, and points out the vulnerability of workers in the cultural sector, with a lack to sufficient social protection, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected income and work of artists and cultural and creative professionals, indicating a negative impact on their working conditions (especially for freelancers and the self-employed).

The report also identifies problems such as abusive subcontracting, bogus self-employment, underpaid or unpaid work, and coercive buy-out contracts; moreover, many of them are forced to work in multiple jobs and gender disparities are also really evident (women are disproportionately affected by poor working conditions),

However, almost 90% of respondents believe that EU could adopt legislation to support and improve conditions in the sector.

These results underline the urgent need to drive policy change and advocacy for cultural workers’ decent working conditions supporting a collective action across Europe.

Discover the report here.