LatinaLista — If you’ve been trying to stay cool this summer by catching up on your reading with a visit to your neighborhood book store or library, you might have wondered why aren’t there more titles by talented Latina/o writers.
Well, a little-noticed report released last month, “Artists in the Workforce 1990-2005″ by the National Endowment for the Arts clues us in — Among artists under 35, only writers remain over 80 percent non- Hispanic white.
The good news is that Latinos and Asians have actually increased their presence in the arts from 9 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2005.
Though it’s not really thought about much, the contributions artists make to society are priceless in terms of economics and culture. The report says that there are nearly two million Americans who are full-time artists.
Overall, the artist life for most artists is one plagued with being underpaid though having more education that the rest of the labor force.
A few more interesting tidbits from the report are:
Women remain underrepresented in several artist occupations. Men outnumber women in architecture, announcing, music, production, and photography. Women outnumber men in the fields of dance, design, and writing.
Unique regional concentrations emerge. New Mexico has the highest share of fine artists, Vermont has the highest proportion of writers, and Tennessee, the highest proportion of musicians.
Artists are entrepreneurial – 3.5 times more likely to be self-employed.
Among artist occupations with the highest educational attainment levels are architects, writers, and producers.
Writers were among the fastest growing artist occupations from 1990 to 2005—growing at twice the rate of the total labor force.
Wonder if they counted bloggers among those writers?
