Abstract:In this paper, we investigate the ongoing, self-motivated activity called freelancing or self-employment, and explore ideas about the entrepreneurial competencies needed to conduct a sustainable work life in the arts. We present the findings of a comparative concept analysis of three concept clusters concerning working in the arts and creative sector: Portfolio of jobs, Portfolio of hybrid practices, and the Portfolio/Protean career. We relate these concept clusters to ideas about arts entrepreneurship and professionalism in the arts in order to investigate our research questions: How do cultural workers/artists in today's social context create economically and creatively sustainable careers? What can we learn from their experiences about broader questions of the cultural value of art, the ongoing trend toward professionalization, and the changing roles of the worker and the entrepreneur in 21st-century economic life? To begin to answer these questions, we undertake a conceptual literature review and use conceptual mapping as a primary tool. We draw on a critical analysis of research, practice, and policy, as well as numerous discussions and interviews with creative professionals and the authors' own experiences with educating students who aim to become cultural workers in the creative sector. Based on our findings, we developed the Integrated Model for Self-Structuring Portfolio Professions. This model demonstrates how incomes and work practices tend to be clustered into portfolios that are self-structured by individual creative workers, acting as the entrepreneurs in their own career management and sustainability.

Arts proponents frequently argue that the arts have a positive impact on the economy, yet this assertion is not supported by satisfactory statistical testing. Using the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and National Arts Index (NAI), this study seeks to verify the contention that arts activities enhance economic growth. The test results signify, at the national level, a positive correlation between arts activities and economic growth in the U.S. between 2002 and 2013. However, the results do not yield strong statistical evidence for a causal relationship between GDP and NAI during the same time period. These findings do not necessarily invalidate the economic impact argument, but they do align with a call for further inquiry into the economic impact of the arts as expressed by other scholars. This study includes an overview of the development of the arts' economic impact argument as well as a discussion of ancillary research implications in the concluding section.

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