Getting Organised

Watching the strikes with interest (online) today. I just thought I would repeat something my husband said last night. He has an eviable ability to see all sides of things and be extremely level headed and articulate in discussion. I wish I could say the same about myself!

In conversation, his mum was saying she didn’t see why the nurses deserved great pensions when other – private sector – workers didn’t get the same. She’s not against nurses per se, but from a personal point of view, with a husband who receives bugger-all pension, she struggles with it.

Dan turned it around and asked whether she couldn’t see it from the other point of view; it’s not bad that the nurses get more than some people, but it’s great that nurses get that, and it would be better if everyone else did too. I guess he’s pointing out that the annoyance is misdirected, and that it’s not strikers that are at fault but the massive imbalance of wealth. Maybe that sounds obvious to everyone else – but it made me think.

Same with artists? Frustration shouldn’t be directed at other artists but to somewhere more constructive, like getting stuck in and finding ways to improve things. Wise owl. I shall keep taking notes from him…

AIR Council elections are open so please make sure you vote if you’re an AIR member. My email from Popularis went to my junk mail so do check if you don’t think you’ve had one yet.

Also – ahem – I’m nominated for it and would really appreciate your vote :D

You can read a bit about all the candidates here:

http://air-artists.org/p/1708683/

This looks interesting, ACE have published a guide for organisations on internships with Creative Cultural Skills.

Recommendations include: an open, transparent and fair recruitment process

Internships being well planned and based on a wider internship and equal opportunities policy

Offering meaningful experiences and responsibilities that contribute to the aims of the organisation

and especially this *** Paying interns at least national minimum wage*****

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/news/arts-council-en…

This open letter to artists was written by Sara Wookey, a dancer, after she auditioned for Marina Abramovich at MoMA L.A. It’s been doing the rounds on twitter and facebook, so apolgies if you’ve already seen it.

http://theperformanceclub.org/2011/11/open-letter-…

In it she describes what was wrong with the working condiditons offered and why it was she refused to participate.

“Artists of all disciplines deserve fair and equal treatment and can organize if we care enough to put the effort into it. I would rather be the face of the outspoken artist then the silenced, slowly rotating head (or, worse, “centerpiece”) at the table. I want a voice, loud and clear.”

I think it’s amazingly clear message about everything that is wrong with accepting bad working conditions whilst also acknowledging that artists often feel forced to accept work on other people’s terms. The last paragraph is just ace.

“I rejected the offer to work with Abramović and MOCA—to participate in perpetuating unethical, exploitative and discriminatory labor practices—with my community in mind. It has moved me to work towards the establishment of ethical standards, labor rights and equal pay for artists, especially dancers, who tend to be some of the lowest paid artists.

The time has come for artists in Los Angeles and elsewhere to unite, organize, and work toward changing the degenerate discrepancies between the wealthy and powerful funders of art and the artists, mainly poor, who are at its service and are expected to provide so-called avant-garde, prescient content or “entertainment,” as is increasingly the case—what is nonetheless merchandise in the service of money. We must do this not because of what happened at MOCA but in response to a greater need (painfully demonstrated by the events at MOCA) for equity and justice for cultural workers.

I am not judging my colleagues who accepted their roles in this work and I, too, am vulnerable to the cult of charisma surrounding celebrity artists. I am judging, rather, the current social, cultural, and economic conditions that have rendered the exploitation of cultural workers commonplace, natural, and even horrifically banal, whether its perpetrated by entities such as MOCA and Abramović or self-imposed by the artists themselves.

I want to suggest another mode of thinking: When we, as artists, accept or reject work, when we participate in the making of a work, even (or perhaps especially) when it is not our own, we contribute to the establishment of standards and precedents for our cohort and all who will come after us.”

Add: This article highlights how Yvonne Rainer also got involved with the Abramovic situation.

http://art-leaks.org/2011/11/29/three-reperformers-from-marina-abramovic-the-artist-is-present-respond-to-the-moca-gala-performances/

This is a section from a press release by Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda

Who feeds the artist ?

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?refe…

“1000 euros a month is not much to live off. Often less than the minimum wage. But most artists, and not only the young ones at the early stages of their career, have to do so. Half the fine artists in the UK, half the “professional” authors in Germany, and, I am told, an incredible 97.5% of one of the biggest collecting society’s members in Europe, receive less than that paltry payment of 1000 euros a month for their copyright works. Of course, the best-paid in this sector earn a lot, and well done to them. But at the bottom of the pyramid are a whole mass of people who need independent means or a second job just to survive.

This is a devastatingly hard way to earn a living. The crisis will only make this worse, as public and private spending on arts, so often seen as discretionary, feels the squeeze. This must be a worry to one of the most valuable and unique sectors in Europe: it is certainly a worry to me.

We need to go back to basics and put the artist at the centre, not only of copyright law, but of our whole policy on culture and growth. In times of change, we need creativity, out-of-the-box thinking: creative art to overcome this difficult period and creative business models to monetise the art. And for this we need flexibility in the system, not the straitjacket of a single model. The platforms, channels and business models by which content is produced, distributed and used can be as varied and innovative as the content itself.”