If the funding landscape is challenging for arts organizations, it’s even more difficult for individual artists. With more competition for less funding and a dependence on one-off project grants, careers in the arts are prone to precarity. Calgary-based artist Eric Moschopedis of interdisciplinary artist duo Mia and Eric believes the solution is obvious, if also unlikely: “A universal basic income (UBI) is the way we should be resolving this, right?”
Some jurisdictions are experimenting with exactly that. Ireland implemented a Basic Income for the Arts in 2026, providing 2,000 artists with €325 (roughly $520 CAD) per week for a three-year span. The program builds on a successful pilot that saw recipients producing more work, earning more revenue and spending more time on their practice while also experiencing less anxiety and higher life satisfaction.
Moschopedis would prefer a truly universal program over one for artists specifically (“I don’t think artists deserve anything more than anyone else gets”). He believes the stability provided by a basic income would allow for more risk-taking and entrepreneurship within the sector.
Mac Brock of Edmonton’s Common Grounds Art Society agrees. “We talk about ‘trickle up’ in innovation in the arts,” he says. “It’s the individuals who are able to take the time to test new technologies, to test new creation methods, to write new work, to develop new work. And then that makes its way up to the larger institutions once we’re able to do it with less risk.”
“Something like an artist universal basic income or a shift to put more of that money into individuals’ pockets is what is going to keep the sector alive by allowing it to keep up,” he says.
Alberta’s arts funders are watching developments in UBI closely. As Calgary Arts Development director for community investment and impact Melissa Tuplin acknowledges, “A grantor cannot grant an artist out of poverty. An individual project grant once a year is not sustaining for an artist’s career. It’s part of an entire constellation of opportunities that artists must seek in order to make a living in the arts.”
As for whether that constellation could include UBI, “That’s a much larger policy discussion than a local arts council could have alone.”
Peter Hemminger is a writer, editor, radio host, arts advocate and communications professional in Calgary.
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