Total fee:
£98.70
calculated from:
£80 facilitator fee
£5.20 travel
£17.50 materials
20 young people attending, 2.5 hours.
Total travel time, there and back: 148 minutes or 2 hours and 28 minutes.
Planning and preparation: 3.5 hours, plus 1.5 hours spent buying or collecting or borrowing all the materials.
Total time spent, including workshop delivery:
10 hours
Back in December I was so desperate to get some work that I agreed to deliver this workshop. The booker was deciding between my proposal – a Batik workshop using flour paste – and someone else’s. Apparently, it all came down to costs.
Against my own ethics and out of despair, I agreed to reduce the cost of the materials for the workshop. This simply meant that I’d have to use most of my own materials and pay for some out of my pocket money. I knew the minute I agreed to this that it was a mistake.
I’m not pointing fingers however, as I know that fault lies entirely on me. Not only do I risk delivering a lesser-quality workshop or having to improvise the lack of materials but now a decently-paid 2.5 hour workshop has been reduced to a badly paid full day’s work (+2 hours), for £8 an hour. Half of what I normally charge for this kind of work.
I am also aware of the wider consequences of offering to work for free or for less money than you should be paid, whether in the arts or in any other industry. All this points back to the need for better wages within the arts, especially when you are working WITH people – in this case young people- which also requires a CRB check (now called a DBS!) and public liability insurance. Not to mention all the years of experience and training in behaviour management, child protection policies……
Should you ever work for little or no pay then? If in doubt, have a look at this chart:
http://shouldiworkforfree.com/
Next time I’ll address the issue of being a practicing artist working in schools and other education-related settings, like this one.
