Can money create creativity?

By Thomas Mosk on December 17, 2010

Standard economic theory predicts that monetary rewards give people incentives to exert effort.  Does this also hold for artists? Are they more creative when they get more money? Money has a monetary value, and thus for instant could buy an artist a nice car or get the artist some nice new acrylic paint, but also gives personal recognition. Artists whose paintings are sold for millions of dollars might feel recognized by a wide audience. At the same time more money could enable them to work on bigger and thus more expensive projects. And bigger projects might get them more exposure and also more recognition, which could again generate more money…….

Money enables artist to purchase raw materials such as canvas and paint.  It simply costs more money to produce For the Love of God than an oil painting. The question remains whether artists get more creative by earning more money.

photo via Super Touch Art blog

The idea that artists get more motivation out of earning more money is very unromantic. However, a complete rejection of this idea results in the statement that artists do not need money at all to be creative.

If so, the more interesting question would be what external motivation would be the most important one to stimulate the creativity of an artist?  Is creativity a gift, which lies embedded in the artist’s DNA and thus can’t be changed, or could we stimulate creativity? And can money be the incentive to spur that change?