This seems like it mostly funnels money to rich kids, to be honest. Nobody else can afford to already be an artist.
Poor people and middle class people produce art. They both work as artists or do art on the side as a hobby. It is not that expensive either.
Expectation that you have portfolio does not strikes me as outrageous either.
Working artists, spouses, and semi-retirees are relatively common.
‘2,000 creative workers’ would make this quite competitive, even if it’s only 20k USD/year that could easily enable people to be artists who wouldn’t make a career of it on their own.