Who is an artist? New data for an old question

• Analysis of largest survey ever undertaken of arts degree graduates.
• Discovery of professional arts workers who claim not to be artists.
• Levels of cultural capital predict professional artist identity.
• Levels of social integration predict artistic identity.
• Teachers and design professionals have weaker artistic self-identification.

Employment in the arts and creative industries is high and growing, yet scholars have not achieved consensus on who should be included in these professions. In this study, we explore the “professional artist” as the outcome of an identity process, rendering it the dependent rather than the independent variable. In their responses to the 2010 Strategic National Arts Alumni Project survey (N = 13,581)—to our knowledge, the largest survey ever undertaken of individuals who have pursued arts degrees in the United States—substantial numbers of respondents gave seemingly contradictory answers to questions asking about their artistic labor. These individuals indicated that they simultaneously had been and had never been professional artists, placing them in what we have termed the “dissonance group.” An examination of these responses reveals meaningful differences and patterns in the interpretation of this social category. We find significant correlation between membership in this group and various markers of cultural capital and social integration into artistic communities. A qualitative analysis of survey comments reveals unique forms of dissonance over artistic membership within teaching and design careers.