Earlier last week, the Paying Artists campaign was at Metal in Peterborough. I didn’t go, because the gas bill was due that week, so I don’t have the spare cash to buy train tickets/subsistence and there was no offer of payment to artists taking part.
Contrasted against this, was a Bikeability Instructor meeting in Sleaford recently. There was lunch provided, and I will be paid for my time, which was why I made the effort to visit the National Centre of Craft & Design beforehand. It was quite difficult to visit somewhere that I applied for a much-needed, but unsuccessful job, to speak to those that got that job, but at least there was free tea.
I really enjoy my work teaching cycle training, it’s very rewarding, and despite this, I still get paid. Not as much as I’d like, but that’s how it should be.
I have the dilemma that I’m doing everything that Tom Godfrey from Moot Gallery did in Nottingham – running an artist-led space, curating our own shows – fellow MA graduate James Sheer-Phailly and I are currently planning a house exhibition for Hallowe-en – Tom spoke of how he continued to do this without funding, which I’ve done for the LAN. But there comes a point where you just want to be paid, you have bills, and you can’t justify inviting artists to do things for free because you’ve applied for funding and been unsuccessful, when it goes completely against your own principles. http://www.lincolnartistnetwork.co.uk/apps/blog/
Maternity leave – that’s a start: http://www.businesszone.co.uk/topic/staff/miliband-pledges-equal-rights-self-employed/58072 But I wonder if we’ll now be able to pay ourselves according to our artists’ day rate fees?
