Susan Jones worked as the director of a-n The Artists Information Company from 1980 to 2014. Her doctoral thesis Artists livelihoods: the artists in arts policy conundrum, Manchester Metropolitan University 2015-2019, exposed baseline flaws in the interrelationship between arts policies and artists’ livelihoods over the last 30 years and articulated a unique new rationale for better support to artists that could enable many more to pursue livelihoods through art practices over a life cycle.
She now works as an independent arts researcher and writer who holds specialist knowledge and insight about the social and political environment for artists and contemporary visual arts.
She has published an essay in the latest issue of Art Monthly looking at the possibility of a new deal for cultural practitioners. In the light of the new UK Labour government, and the opportunities that may or may not bring, Owen Kelly talks to Susan Jones about possible futures.
Fact checking: After the recording Susan pointed out that Owen had referred several times to something called “arts monthly”, when he meant Art Monthly; and that he had mispronounced Nicholas Serota’s name. He should have said Nick Ser-OH-ta.