Making A Living

 

OPEN LETTER TO Arts Council Portfolio & DCMS Visual Art Organisations

SENT: October 2011

RE: FAIR PAY FOR ARTISTS

We are an anonymous grouping of national and international artists who campaign on the working conditions of artists in the UK. In light of the recent cuts to the arts sector, now is the time for the remaining Portfolio and DCMS funded arts organisations to re-evaluate their funding priorities.Key to this re-evaluation should be an urgent discussion on how to pay artists fairly.

We would like to raise awareness and acknowledge examples of best practice of people working pro-actively towards parity for artists in their organisations. 

Artists are the sectors frontline, however it would appear that the basic working rights of this vital part of the work-force have been at best neglected, and at worst, ignored by those who are supposed to be our advocates.

By sharing our experiences, it has become clear to us that there are numerous examples of the non-payment or under-payment of artists working with subsidised galleries across the UK. It has also become clear throughout our discussions that this poor practice was rife during the ‘boom’ in arts funding, long before the cuts.

In the recent, widely reported study by a-n The Artists Information Company, ‘Changing Face of Artists’ Employment’* , it is made clear that individual artists will bare the brunt of the arts spending review. The cuts to ACE have adversely affected an artist’s ability to apply independently for funding and the insecurity within Higher Education has already impacted on research funding and budgets for visiting and associate lecturers – a vital source of income for many artists.

To be clear, our concern goes beyond mere protectionism. We understand the need for artists to take responsibility and re-design certain ways of working. However, our abilities to respond to the most difficult of situations should never be used as an excuse for the core funded sector to abdicate their responsibility towards their workforce.

Even in the context of cuts to the arts, artists working with our leading public galleries and museums cannot be expected to work for little or no pay and it is simply not acceptable to suggest that we should just be grateful for any opportunity. Without urgent action, art in the UK will become increasingly limited to already established names and those wealthy enough to buy their way in to the current dysfunctional system. If part of the remit of NPO’s is to increase accessibility it is crucial to apply this, not only to audience, but to artists trying to work in the sector.

We therefore urge our colleagues in the publicly funded sector to join us in addressing this situation by sharing your current policies or examples of best practice of fair pay for the artists you work with. 

Please email your examples to makingaliving@live.com

It is our intention to work towards a simple and universal model of good practice in relation to artist fees and would like to nominate arts organisations for our MAL ‘Seal of Approval’.  We are hopeful that many of you are already addressing this vital issue and that you will be interested in contributing to this campaign.

We call on our colleagues in the public sector to step up to this timely and urgent challenge in order to help protect what is the lifeblood of the arts: ARTISTS.

With best wishes,

MAKING A LIVING (MAL)

*For further details please visit: http://www.a-n.co.uk/publications/document/1264893

 

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AN OPEN LETTER TO TATE

SENT: MAY 2010

“We don’t really cherish our artists to the degree we should.”
Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of Tate, quoted in the Evening Standard 23.04.10

As a grouping of national and international artists, we publicly challenge No Soul For Sale (NSFS) at Tate Modern over the weekend of 14th-16th May 2010.

The title No Soul For Sale re-enforces deeply reductive stereotypes about the artist and art production. With its romantic connotations of the soulful artist, who makes art from inner necessity without thought of recompense, No Soul For Sale implies that as artists we should expect to work for free and that it is acceptable to forego the right to be paid for our labour.

It has come to our attention that many participants are not being paid by Tate Modern for their efforts. In fact, most are self-funding their activities throughout the weekend. Tate describes this situation as a “spirit of reciprocal generosity between Tate and the contributors”. But at what point does expected generosity become a form of institutional exploitation? Once it becomes endemic within a large publicly funded art space?

Reciprocal generosity is the lifeblood of independent art communities throughout the world. This spirit is not however the property of any one institution, artist or curator and it is complacent for Tate to believe that their position is comparable to ground level arts activity. It therefore seems disingenuous for Tate to claim that their hosting of NSFS is somehow altruistic or philanthropic. Tate publicly has the most to gain, yet we have discovered that Tate’s reciprocity does not even extend to the provision of basic resources, such as the use of chairs and tables for some of the participants in NSFS. Tate will commercially benefit from NSFS through increased audiences and the inevitable increase in the sale of books, magazines, merchandise, refreshments, donations and exhibition entry fees. Is the nature of this exchange really occurring on a level playing field? Is the relationship as reciprocal as it could be?

As many of us in Making A Living have worked with Tate and other major art galleries, we understand that the expectation of free labour and self -funding is not exclusive to NSFS. During our discussions it has come to light that Tate has not paid artists for some exhibitions, workshops and events, including last year’s Tate Triennial, and that this policy has existed over a considerable period of time, long before the current economic crisis became an issue for arts institutions.

We call for an end to this poor practice and manipulation of generosity as Tate Modern celebrates its 10th birthday. We call on Tate to make public its policy in regard to artists’ fees.

If artists continue to work for free, or are expected to pay for their efforts when working with our major art institutions, then we deny opportunities to the great majority of artists who simply cannot afford to take such financial risks. Tate and other major publicly funded galleries risk spoiling their good work by unwittingly limiting their pool of future exhibiting artists to individuals who can afford to pay for the privilege, or who are content or able to work for little or no pay. If NSFS manages to start a productive conversation about this ‘elephant in the room’ then we think it may yet be described as a success.

M.A.L
(Making A Living: A discussion group of Arts professionals currently active across the UK)
makingaliving@live.co.uk