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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Kelly Burke

A woman, middle-aged and struggling to pay bills: home truths in portrait of Australian artists

Emma Harvie and Mandy McElhinney in Sydney Theatre Company’s No Pay? No Way!
Emma Harvie and Mandy McElhinney in Sydney Theatre Company’s No Pay? No Way! this year. Photograph: Daniel Boud

A portrait of an artist as a young man is more likely to be a portrait of an artist as a middle age-woman in Australia today.

The seventh economic study of professional performing and visual artists and writers across all art forms was released by Creative Australia (formerly the Australia Council) on Tuesday, and women working in the sector now outnumber men two to one. And the average age of a professional artist is 48 for women and 49 for men.

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