Progetto Innosuisse | “Building a Character”

Image and current status of performing arts professions in Italian-speaking Switzerland

Context

The working context of professionals in the performing arts in Italian-speaking Switzerland is little known. Research on the working conditions of performing and scenic artists in Switzerland provides limited data regarding Italian-speaking Switzerland, compared to the more extensive information available for the French- and German-speaking regions. This partial knowledge of the professional field, combined with the presence of stereotypes and prejudices in the artistic domain (for example, the perception of the artist as someone who becomes one “by vocation” and by relying on “natural talent”), contributes to the lack of recognition of artistic work as a profession.

This has concrete consequences for those wishing to pursue a career in the field, such as—among others—the difficulty of obtaining fair fees or salaries for professionals and the proposal to work without formal contracts (“off the books”).

The pandemic crisis further highlighted this condition of vulnerability among artists. Some artists were unable to meet the requirements to access support measures (based on the Federal Act on the Promotion of Culture and the COVID-cultural ordinances) and social insurance schemes, due to limited knowledge of the ordinary subsidy system, extraordinary measures, and social security provisions, as well as characteristics linked to their working situation (intermittent work, multiple simultaneous activities, low annual income), which do not correspond to eligibility criteria for social insurance systems still largely based on full-time, permanent employment contracts.

Project Content and Objectives

The research project is proposed by the research sector of the Accademia Dimitri, in collaboration with the Centre for Work, Welfare and Society (DEASS-SUPSI) and the Centre for Health Policy and Practice (DEASS-SUPSI), and aims to examine the profession and living conditions of performing artists (actors and actresses, dancers, circus artists, clowns, etc.) active in Italian-speaking Switzerland.

The first important step is to achieve a mapping of the performing arts sector in Italian-speaking Switzerland, which is currently not fully known. This objective will be achieved through the application of an innovative, non-probability sampling method called Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS), which will allow the field to be delineated and defined while taking into account the artists’ own perspectives.

Thanks to the data obtained through RDS sampling, the project aims to give voice to professionals and to understand the characteristics of their work and professional trajectories, with attention to less well-known forms (such as physical theatre), examining the individual, structural, and social conditions of artistic activity.

To document professional reality, data will be collected on career paths (e.g., employment rate and its stability and variability over time), employment status (self-employed/employee), types of contracts, income, access to social insurance, ordinary and extraordinary subsidies, also taking into account the notion of professional identity.

Particular attention will be paid to the meaning attributed to terms used by interviewees, for example: what does “professional artist” mean in the words of the respondent? This aspect will be essential to highlight the relationship between the professional identity defined by interviewees, stereotypes and prejudices related to performing arts professions, and the conditions determined by legal frameworks, the social security system, and the labour market.

Impact of the Project

The study will provide clearer and more detailed knowledge and visibility of performing artists in Italian-speaking Switzerland, contributing to greater public awareness. The pandemic crisis has shown how essential it is to understand the characteristics and nuances of a profession in order to provide quantitative and qualitative data useful for dialogue between institutions and the artistic sector.

The knowledge of professional reality produced by the project will provide important data for professional associations and cultural promotion bodies, as well as for all those working in the sector, supporting them in the following tasks:

• contributing to the defence of performing arts professions as recognised professional activities, counteracting phenomena such as precarious employment and undeclared work;
• developing strategies and tools for targeted communication and dissemination of information regarding ordinary subsidies, extraordinary measures, and social insurance;
• developing guidelines and training proposals so that artists (both students and professionals) can access educational content on labour market issues, cultural promotion, and the social security system.

The results achieved may also form the basis for a subsequent project addressing the issue of artists’ social security from an inter-cantonal perspective.