This brief review of The Working Artist (A Space; May 21 - 30, 1987), discusses the plight of artists and other working-poor in eastern Canada. As an intervention into discussions regarding whether artists should become "wards of the state," the Toronto-based Independent Artists Union organized a public forum at A Space featuring such speakers at art dealer Avrom Isaacs, Karl Beveridge (Artists Union) and Barbara Fischer (Art Gallery of Ontario).