Study reports tensions over paying exhibiting artists

A new report finds that artists and gallery representatives agree artists should be paid for exhibiting their work in a publicly funded gallery, but they fail to agree on the specifics of how this should be implemented.

Artists and gallery representatives overwhelmingly agree that artists should be paid for exhibiting their work in publicly funded galleries, but there is no consensus on the best way to move forwards, a new report finds. Analysing the findings from an online survey, the report, ‘Paying Artists: valuing art, valuing artists’, notes that over 85% of respondents from the visual arts sector support a more equitable financial arrangement, but that there are concerns over the potential consequences of such a move. They voiced fears for the financial health of the sector and a possible reduction in the number of professional opportunities made available to artists.

Support for paying artists is echoed in “…a desire across the sector for some kind of a fees framework.” However, both artists and gallery representatives gave the proviso that any solution be sufficiently flexible to fit the diverse financial environment surrounding the visual arts. For instance, whilst considerable support was given to the general idea of guidance for artists and galleries in negotiating a fee, when it came to implementing a specific measure, any consensus disappeared. The suggestion of introducing written national guidelines was dismissed on the grounds that these could harm smaller organisations, whose time and resources would be swallowed by bureaucratic necessity. Although there is some shared understanding and agreement within the sector over what a fair fee constitutes, the report finds that “the sector, on the whole, seems unready at this stage for a very detailed set of fee requirements.”

The tension between support for the general idea of fair pay and a rejection of specific solutions continues in an analysis of what fee artists should charge. As well as noting that “at present, recognition of an artist’s time is often not reflected properly in fees,” and indicating support for indicative minimum rates, respondents expressed concerns that national fee guidelines could inhibit beneficial by-products of working without a fee in a gallery, such as having an open and accessible platform for early-career artists.

The report forms part of the Paying Artist campaign which has been running since May 2014. The online survey, used as the main research tool to complement gallery interviews, reached over 1,440 artists and 332 gallery officials. The intention is to use the conclusions to publish a full set of guidelines and fee recommendations in 2016.
Author(s):
Christy Romer


http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/study-reports-tensions-over-paying-exhibiting-artists?utm_source=Weekly-News&utm_medium=email&utm_content=http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/study-reports-tensions-over-paying-exhibiting-artists&utm_campaign=29th-May-2015

Artists to question politicians over fair pay in political hustings

Scottish artists campaigning for "fair pay" from galleries are to challenge political candidates in an election style-hustings event this weekend.

Two artist membership organisations, A-N and the Scottish Artists Union (SAU) will host an event in Glasgow with representatives political candidates from major parties.

The cultural hustings will be held at The Whisky Bond on Saturday, May 2.

The event will be chaired by Jim Tough, executive director of the Saltire Society, alongside a cultural panel that includes Kyla McDonald, artistic director of Glasgow Sculpture Studios, artist Sukaina Kubba, academic Emma Flynn and a representative from the Scottish Artists Union. 

The political panel will include Moira Crawford of the Green Party, Chris Young from the Liberal Democrats, Gordon McCaskill, Conservative, Brian Smith, Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, with an SNP and Labour candidate to be announced.

Janie Nicoll, an artist, said: "Some publicly-funded galleries pay artists fairly, others don't and getting them to be transparent and open about their payment policies is the first step to making sure we all get proper payment for the work we do.

"The hustings debate is about raising the awareness of election candidates so they understand the importance of the issue and use their influence to encourage galleries to spend tax payers' money in a way which supports fair payment."

The event is part of a nationwide campaign Paying Artists campaign based on research showing that 71% of artists do not get a fee for exhibiting in publicly funded galleries - with 63% of artists having to turn down gallery requests because they cannot afford to exhibit for nothing. 

The event coincides with the artist-led city wide Glasgow Open House Festival in which artists will showcase new work or ideas within public and domestic locations. 

This year the programme features 200 artists across 50 venues.

Phil Miller, Arts Correspondent

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/artists-to-question-politicians-over-fair-pay-in-political-hustings.124639764

Paying Artists by Moira Jeffrey on axis web

http://www.axisweb.org/features/news-and-views/in-focus/paying-artists-by-moira-jeffrey/

David McLeavy, Work! Work! Work! 2013. Image courtesy of Leon Read Photography

Guest columnist Moira Jeffrey examines the growing discussion around the need to pay artists

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I recently sat around a table in Edinburgh with more than a dozen artists, curators and other freelancers in the visual arts. Our workshop was part of a symposium, Labour of Love, devised by Jenny Richards, formerly of UK galleries Collective and Cubitt and now director of Konsthall C in Stockholm. 

Before we began a day that examined the way that artists are exploring the questions of work and workplaces, we endeavoured to understand our own relationship with labour.We drew diagrams that analysed how much of our weekly work might constitute part of our own core practice and how much was activity that subsidised or supported it. Somewhere in that equation we examined what we got paid for and what we did for free. 

The stark reality was that for everyone the peaks and troughs were in the wrong place, with work time outweighing studio time for artists, and the work we loved the most least likely to be remunerated. As a freelance writer (even when working on big projects with big institutions I’ve been employed only one year in the last 17) I am painfully aware that my own position is often contradictory. In the transactions of the cultural world sometimes I am the person in the room who is getting paid and sometimes the only unsalaried person at a table where everyone wants my opinion but no one will pay my train ticket.

The momentum around paying artists should be simple and unstoppable. Publicly funded organisations simply must do it. The Scottish Artists Union has long campaigned for equitable rates of pay and recently had its guidelines recognised by the funding body Creative Scotland. In September 2013 the SAU was joined by the Artist’s Union England. Arts Council England now requires its National Portfolio Organisations to embrace fair pay under strictures that their compliance will be monitored. 

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has recognised the fee structures proposed by Visual Artists Ireland. The Arts Council of Ireland and Dublin City Council are amongst the bodies that stipulate that funding provided by them must clearly indicate payments for artists as a condition of their funding provision. Axisweb is one of many organisations and prominent individuals who have signed up to support The Paying Artists campaign led by a_n / AIR. Artists are in the process of building or reinforcing pay structures that reflect those of their colleagues in Equity, BECTU or the Musicians Union.

But if the position of artists pay in institutional and public relationships is now officially enshrined, why does it continue to be so dismal? As one part of the system finally lumbers into gear, much deeper shifts in the economies undermine it. The austerity agenda is biting deep into English culture budgets. The increases in casual, part-time and zero hours contracts as a mainstay of the wider economy are impacting on artists’ abilities to support their practice. Technology brings freedom but also a new understanding of “content” and “information” as freely available resources rather than the product of real time and labour.

Artists and freelance cultural workers have long-evolved strategies of exchange, mutual labour and self-support but artists are currently finding that a position at the forefront of new, more extensive “sharing economies” is not uncomplicated. Like the dilemmas of urban gentrification, exposing cracks in the system that can usefully be occupied for the mutual benefit of cultural workers often leaves them open to the shock troops of developers, corporations or more aggressive economic forces. And progress is very slow. Gallery cultures, residency schemes, commissioners and other individuals and organisations that should know better, still don’t get it. 

For younger artists there is the insidious suggestion that working for free creates opportunities.Some of this is part of wider employment culture of internships in culture and the creative industries. For more established artists, there is the expectation that senior status brings economic independence or that the market solves all problems. A senior contemporary artist recently told me that they personally paid for the production costs of a high profile show at one of the most prominent public venues in the country. There was insufficient budget because there was the expectation that, at their level, a commercial gallery would shell out.

The issue of course is not only rates of pay for sessional work or exhibition fees, although these are essential places to start. It is about the availability of housing, of affordable studio spaces, of production resources and about job availability and job mobility in those traditional sectoral roles where artists often work such as gallery technicians, educators and information assistants.

The question of equal access to culture has recently become a stick with which politicians like to beat institutions, but the question of who gets to make culture is less spoken about in the era of tuition fees and the housing crisis. There is no use grumbling about posh people in the arts from Marcus Mumford to Eddie Redmayne if we don’t recognise and address the systemic failings and web of inequalities that transformed the radical social mobility of cultural education in the sixties to the finishing school it is now. The excellent work of the Arts Emergency campaign sets out to overturn the trend by mentoring and activism.

What can we do? Well we must be open. We must try to recognise our own positions and blind spots.Writers and editors like myself must think much harder about what we ask artists to do in terms of their time, resources and use of their images or intellectual capital. Institutions must use their spending power both wisely and imaginatively to support artists. And we must examine them openly if they fail to do so. They must subject their policies around volunteering or internships to thorough ethical and legal scrutiny. But above all they need to think strategically and holistically about what paying artists actually means. 

It means production budgets as well as fees; it means travel expenses, it means thinking hard about organising and locating meetings and paying artists for their time on installation for example. It means thinking genuinely and developmentally about what opportunities really are and distinguishing them from exploitation or unfair labour demarcation. It means understanding artists support both as a fees table and as an ecology that should be considered at all times. Above all when artists say no thanks as much as yes please, all of us must listen.

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Contributed by Moira Jeffrey, April 2015

Moira Jeffrey is a writer based in Glasgow. 

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

Paying artist launches

The Paying artists campaign and website was launched on Monday, and has already gained lots of well-deserved support. If you would like to add your own support to the campaign, follow this link

The website contains a concise and comprehensive report about the need to support artists, case studies of galleries showing good practice, information about what change is needed and how to support the campaign.

Here is the foreword to the report:

Without artists there is no art.Artists are the innovators from which great art emerges and on which our society’s well-being depends.

It is through artists’ ideas, experiments and ingenuity that creative ideas and products
are made manifest.Art by its nature presents a wide range of levels of engagement and participation for people and audiences.Artists thrive on such engagement as an essential ingredient to feed what is their continuous, life-time’s dedication to a creative practice.

The world is always looking for new ways of seeing.Art practice – the collective performance of art making between materials, artists, artworks, galleries and people -
is an inter-disciplinary reflexive process that enables us all to rethink and re-imagine our realities, which creates cultural value.

Paying artists is about transforming opportunities for artists, galleries, funders and policy- makers alike. In removing the financial barriers faced by many artists, it will give publicly- funded galleries – and the public themselves – access to quality art which covers the spectrum of human experience.

It will bring value to the investment of all who fund the arts by encouraging and enabling diversity and equality of opportunity for all artists now and in the future. In doing so,
it will play a direct role in ensuring we retain our reputation here for supporting creative talent and delivering world-class art.

Now is the time to demonstrate in the arts how much we value art and value artists.
By working together to define and adopt practical steps and frameworks for good practice, we can safeguard and strengthen the symbiotic relationship visual artists have with publicly-funded institutions and with the communities and audiences they collectively serve.

a-n The Artists Information Company / AIR Artists Interaction and Representation

May 2014

for more information visit

http://www.payingartists.org.uk

Gallery withdraws unpaid installation 'opportunity' in response to protests - a-n article

Edinburgh's Fruitmarket Gallery has responded to widespread criticism from artists and withdrawn an advert for unpaid volunteers to help install a forthcoming exhibition by Glasgow artist Jim Lambie.
BY: CHRIS SHARRATT


http://new.a-n.co.uk/news/single/gallery-withdraws-unpaid-installation-opportunity-in-response-to-artists-protests

Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh has responded to comments from artists and withdrawn what was advertised as an unpaid ‘one-off opportunity’ to install Jim Lambie’s Zobop floor piece at the gallery. The Glasgow artist's solo exhibition, which opens 27 June, is part of the Scotland-wide Generation programme, celebrating the last 25 years of artists’ practice in the country.


A statement sent to a-n from the gallery said: “The Fruitmarket Gallery pays its information assistants, installation teams and all artists working in our learning programmes, the Edinburgh Living Wage or above. In this instance, we thought in good faith that we could offer a one-off short term opportunity that might interest people in our audience who have some free time and are interested in joining in with an installation for a few days.


“We have listened to comments, wholeheartedly support a-n's Paying Artists Campaign, and withdraw the offer. We will use paid installers to install the piece.”


Originally posted on its website and Facebook page on Monday, the advert asked for up to eight people to commit to working a minimum of six days each over a 12-day install period. The volunteers, who were to work a 9-5 day alongside the gallery’s installation staff and artist’s assistants, were offered lunch, an exhibition catalogue and an invite to the show’s private view ‘as a thank you’.


Immediate response


The response on Twitter and Facebook to the advert was immediate. ArtistMorgan Cahn wrote: “I just can’t fathom why Jim and the Fruitmarket wouldn’t want to pay some young artists for this. That would be an excellent opportunity for THEM to put money and knowledge into their community.”


Glasgow artist Janie Nicoll said: “It seems like really bad practice dressed up as an opportunity.” Edinburgh-based artist and lecturer Alan Holligan added: “The immediate problem with these kinds of unpaid opportunities is who is available to take them up. One of the wonderful things about paying people is that it democratizes the opportunity by opening it up to those who cannot afford to work for nothing.”


Artist Kevin Harman, a graduate of Edinburgh College of Art, recalled being paid for installing a Lambie floor piece during his second year at college: “We got paid £6 an hour, it was a good experience, which I wouldn’t have been able to participate in if it was unpaid as I had to earn some dosh to pay for rent, materials, etc…”


Commenting on Twitter, Joanne Tatham said: "Payment for such work sustains artists and the communities now celebrated by the #generation project." Glasgow-based writer and artist Fiona Jardine (@fdjardine) wrote: “This kind of work underscores the Glasgow scene we've heard so much about... Why can't #Generation @fruitmarket support it?”


Asked by a-n to respond to this specific question, the gallery, which is one of Creative Scotland's regularly funded venues with a grant in aid for 2013-14 of £666,600, said: “The Fruitmarket Gallery has received £3,000 from Generation towards our exhibition. This is in addition to our regular funding from Creative Scotland, which is the only regular public funding we receive, and accounts for around 50% of our costs. The rest we raise.


“Our entire existence and programme supports artists and audiences in Scotland and beyond. We are proud to pay the Edinburgh Living Wage or above to all our staff, and entrance to our exhibitions is always free.”


Creative Scotland comment


Asked to comment on the issue of unpaid volunteers, a spokesperson for Creative Scotland said: “Creative Scotland is supportive of the Paying Artists Campaign. This campaign reflects the principle laid out in our 10 Year Plan of encouraging better levels of remuneration for artists, in order to ensure that Scotland is a country where they can live and work and that their contribution to all or lives is recognised.


“Voluntary positions do have an important role to play and can often present genuine opportunities for people to gain valuable experience in the art, screen and creative industries, to learn and to make a contribution on their own terms.


"In parallel to this, we will be working to encourage the organisations that we fund to develop clear policies around volunteering and to ensure that trained, practicing artists and creative practitioners are always paid fairly.”

AIR's UK-wide Paying Artists Survey

The first results of AIR's UK-wide Paying Artists Survey – which focuses on artists' experiences of publicly-funded galleries – reveal low earnings, miniscule or no fees at all for exhibiting, and shrinking production budgets.

The first set of results of a survey by AIR: Artists Interaction and Representation reveal that the majority of artists receive no fee at all for exhibiting work and most earn less than £10,000 a year from their practice.

Over 1000 artists took part in the UK-wide survey exploring artists’ experiences of exhibiting in publicly-funded venues in the UK. The survey was developed by DHA Communications within a wider campaign to highlight the need to pay and value artists for their vital contribution to arts and culture. The results will inform the next research stages which include discussions with galleries, professional networks and arts funders.

Key findings from the survey include some sobering figures on the income artists earn from their practice:

- 72% of artists earn up to £10K a year

- 17% earn between £10K and £20K

- Only 12% earn more than £20K

Sales, teaching and commissions were the key sources of income for artists, with most citing 'sharing their work with the public' as the most important reason for exhibiting. 

However, nearly half of all artists reported that exhibiting their work is prohibitively expensive.  

Key findings in relation to exhibiting include:

- 71% of artists surveyed had not received any fee at all for exhibiting. Of those who were paid a fee, over a third received less than £200. Over half expressed dissatisfaction with their fee when set against their experience and status

- 63% of artists have turned down an offer to exhibit for reasons including unsuitability of venue, lack of fees, or non-payment of expenses

- 62% of artists have exhibited in a publicly-subsidised gallery in the last three years

- Only 16 of 134 publicly-funded UK galleries were cited by artists as providing exemplary support for exhibiting artists

- Less than half received production support (technical assistance, etc) from the gallery and less than a third got expenses, such as covering the cost of transporting their work to a gallery

AIR Council member Caroline Wright said: “The aim of the survey is to generate advocacy including knowledge of good practice frameworks, and to shape positive policy change for artists. We hope the campaign will empower artists and galleries to work together to improve the current state of affairs.”

An infographic of the key survey findings can be viewed at www.a-n.co.uk/paying_artists.

Jack Hutchinson