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Over 80% of practitioners in the UK arts sector work on a freelance basis. While freelancing offers scope for autonomy and creative freedom, it is also characterized by widespread precarity, low pay, long hours and systemic inequalities. Funding cuts and recent challenges have only intensified these conditions.
This book provides an evidence-based account of what it means to work as a freelancer in the UK performing arts sector, drawing on data from the Big Freelancer Survey (2020–2025). It presents a unique insight into arts-based freelance work in the UK, providing workable recommendations for change.
Philip Hancock is a Professor of Work and Organisation Studies at the University of Essex and Co-Director of the Centre for Work, Organisation and Society and the Future of Creative Work research group.
Melissa Tyler is a Professor of Work and Organisation Studies at the University of Essex and Co-director of the Centre for Work, Organisation and Society and the Future of Creative Work research group.
Introduction
1. Freelancing in the UK Arts
2. Pay: Freelance Not Free
3. The Freelance Trap: Being Caught in the ‘Overwork-Underpayment Bind’
4. Pale, Male and Stale? Inequalities and Exclusions in the Arts
5. The Freelance Mental Health Crisis
6. Making it Work: Towards a More Sustainable, Accessible and Equitable Future