Today I attended the last Lincoln Artist’s Market I booked for this year, and I’m really glad actually – I made the grand total of £1 – some savvy looking young ladies very graciously bought some Lady of Shalott mirrors that I’d made.
But by late afternoon I’d become very jaded by the whole event.
Realistically it was not a good idea to try to sell work – I could’ve used the stall more effectively to promote the LAN, but due to financial hardship waiting for my bursary to come through, a cheque bounced for the stall hire – the organisers seem very keen to make sure that artists pay the fee – everyone seems very keen to get artists to pay for things, even though recent graduates are expected to work voluntarily (ie free).
I’m quite tempted to stage a protest as part of the upcoming Summer Gala events.
The Sunday event is at Sincil Bank stadium, and I reckon it’s time to get the placards out and protest against graduate exploitation – the expectation for artists to work for free when even a cleaner won’t expect less than the National Minimum Wage, and in fact footballers, who generally don’t need to go to University, and therefore do not have student loans to pay off, are in fact paid a lot more for merely kicking a football around….. all that kinda stuff!
My bursary for the Lincoln Artist’s Market finally has arrived, so now the financial pressure will relax a bit, and plans are already shaping up for the Lincoln Artist Network.
I’m hoping to organise another meeting in the next couple of weeks, as the Summer Gala will be the best vehicle to initiate LAN installations/ artist’s employment issues protests!
Following the success of the protests made by workers at the Lindsey Oil Refinery recently.
