The NewBridge Project Annual General Meeting - 6-8pm - Thursday 29th November 2018

The NewBridge Project
Annual General Meeting

Thursday 29 November, 6-8pm
The NewBridge Project, Carliol House Co-Work Space

You are invited to The NewBridge Project’s Annual General Meeting on Thursday 29 November, 6-8pm in the Carliol House Co-work space. 

The AGM will be an opportunity to hear about NewBridge’s activities over the last year, to discuss plans for the future, and to hear more about some artist members work through a series of short presentations. I'll be talking about my Voices: Within and Without project that was funded by Arts Council England.

Staff, members, artists, volunteers, funders, partners and members of the public are invited to join the meeting.

There will be time at the end for drinks and socialising, and there will be cake!

Undertow: A Provocation for the Scottish Artists Union by Harry Giles, for SAU AGM

Artist, writer Harry Giles was asked to create a provocation for the Scottish Artists Union AGM to be held on 28th September 2014. Harry responded to the brief knowing this would be recorded before the Independence Referendum (on 18th September) but screened after the event...


http://youtu.be/fyiTlcHWXsg

Scottish Artists Union AGM

As I made my journey from Newcastle up to Scotland I wondered what the atmosphere would be like following the referendum. 

I did not detect a deflated atmosphere that I'd been warned about, but maybe that was because of the nature of the event that I was attending: The Scottish Artists Union AGM, at which I was giving the Treasurers report.
Amongst the routine AGM business, the Scottish Artists Union AGM agenda was filled with stimulating presentations and debate.

Firstly, Angela Kennedy, Chair of the relatively newly formed Artists Union England (AUE), presented 'Solidarity across borders, Unionism in the arts - Activism and working collectively.' 

Angela discussed the factors that prompted the formation of the AUE, and what they set out to do.

"Artists’ Union England is a new trade union for professional visual and applied artists.


We aim to represent artists at strategic decision-making levels and positively influence the role artists play within society.


We aim to challenge the economic inequalities in the art world and to negotiate fair pay and better working conditions for artists.


We aim to work with other unions, arts organisations, government bodies and cultural institutions whilst remaining both independent and transparent.


We aim towards consensus decision-making, an active grass roots membership and involvement over a wide geographical spread."


Angela talked about how artist members have requested that AUE investigates factors including sexism, ageism, disability discrimination, low pay and zero hour contracts, and commented about the universality of these issues, hoping that because they are not just concerns for artists, that this will attract more general support and backing from non-artists.


More information about AUE can be found on their website, and I am looking forward to getting more involved.


http://www.artistsunionengland.org.uk


Chris Kelly's presentation about the annual SAU Members Survey provided good support for some of the things that Angela had been talking about. This, the third members survey to be conducted, provides good data about working conditions of artists.

Some key figures include:


- in the year 2012-2013, 67% of SAU members earned £5,000 or less (after tax), and only 21% earned between £5000-£10000 (after tax)


- 62% of SAU members consistently get paid less than the SAU recommended rates of pay


- 48% of SAU members do not get contracts consistently


Given this evidence, it is difficult to understand why people are questioning why artists need a union. We discussed the kind of direction that members want the union to take.

This lead neatly to Harry Giles' video presentation titled 'Politics and economics post-referendum, whatever the result'
Giles talked about the need to be prepared for cuts in taxes and in funding. He was recently artist in residence at Govanhill Baths, and was delighted at the way that different groups within the community had come together to work towards a single aim. He proposed that this would be a good model to follow for the unions, rather like the way that two communities (Lesbians and Gays and the National Union of Mineworkers) supported each other, as documented in the recent film, Pride, which I saw last week. 

Pride is a powerful account of a true story, and follows the Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners campaign. It shows what can be achieved when different groups work together to essentially fight for the same basic human rights. 

Applying this to our current climate, we discussed how different unions could find a common cause in the interest of all the members. Such issues could include universal credit and different forms of discrimination.

The day was brought to an end with a short presentation by Jack Richardson on the Paying Artists campaign. 
"Launched on 19 May, the Paying Artists campaign seeks to raise awareness of the value of artists within publicly-funded exhibitions and gallery programmes.
Informed both by independent research into artists' perceptions of the value of the exhibition process within their practice along with data on their income from arts practice, and in-depth interviews with artists at a range of career stages and with curators and gallery directors about their approaches and practices, the campaign aims to secure the future of the visual arts in the UK through creating equality of opportunity for artists, based on their talent and potential for innovation rather than on their ability to self-finance their exhibitions when held in publicly-funded galleries.
The research and campaign, which is a combined effort beween a-n - The Artists Information Company and AIR - Artists Interaction and Representation, has attracted a groundswell of support from across the UK and internationally, highlighting artists' pay and working conditions as a "global issue"."
For more information visit

http://www.payingartists.org.uk

http://www.cvan.org.uk/news/2014/6/13/paying-artists-campaign-gathers-momentum

Scottish Artists Union Members Survey results

As promised, here are a selection of findings from the Scottish Artists Union's (SAU) Members survey:

65% of respondents earn £5000 or less per year (after tax)

20% of respondents earn between £5000 - £10000 per year (after tax)

56% of respondents consistently get less than the Scottish Artists Union's Recommended Rate of Pay (RRP)

51% of respondents seldom get contracts for work they do

74% of respondents seldom or never receive exhibition payment fees

Scottish Artists Union AGM - Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh

I find it hard to believe that it is a year since I became a member of the Scottish Artists Union Executive Committee, and there has been a lot of activity in that past year, as reported at yesterday's AGM.

 

After a few of the formalities, Financial Report, Election of new Executive Committee and Proposed motions, SAU Secretary Chris Kelly presented the results from the 2013 Members Survey.

This major piece of research is highly useful evidence to support some of the points that the SAU are 'fighting for'. There are too many results to discuss them all here, but  will reveal some of these findings in later posts so keep checking my blog!

After a short comfort break (i.e. a chance to catch up with fellow SAU members), SAU Vice President Janie Nicoll delivered a brief presentation about her recent participation in the engage International Summer School held in Padua, Italy. The Summer School was focused on 'Leadership and Resilience in gallery education.

About engage

engage is a membership organisation representing gallery, art and education professionals in the UK and over 20 countries worldwide. engage promotes access to, enjoyment and understanding of the visual arts through gallery education. 

More  information about engage and the Summer School can be seen on the engage website:

http://www.engage.org/Summer-School-2013

The AGM closed with a great presentation by guest speaker Richie Cumming who discussed his work with Creative Stirling and the '14OURZERO2014' project

1NE4OURZERO2014 is the second incarnation of Creative Stirling’s Freedom Versions

 

In summer of 2012 the yard of the Old Town Jail in Stirling was transformed by a large-scale collaborative installation of visual art, musical performance and printed written word exploring the themes of freedom, independence, colonisation and alienation.

The project created a process where Scots people could reflect on the question of independence beyond polarised political debate and through the lens of Scottish culture and heritage. They wanted to create a platform to explore the role of artists and thinkers in Scotland on the question of our contemporary cultural identity.

One of the outcomes of the project was an exhibition of 40 hand screen-printed poster works consisting of the most considered, inspired and powerful statements, poetic/prosaic lines, comments and ideas concerning the landscape of a post-referendum Scotland as submitted by the public; artists, plumbers, engineers, housewives, students and people from all walks.

The installation included a working print studio run by artists and designers employing traditional print methods and the content for the exhibition grew and evolved over the six week installation as responses were gathered.

The project lives on and more information can be found on the website http://1ne4ourzero2014.tumblr.com/