The International Association of Art (IAA) has launched a new campaign on exhibition remuneration in Europe to coincide with World Art Day. It is advocating for fair exhibition remuneration for visual artists throughout Europe and calling on galleries to be inspired by best practice examples. Its campaign slogan is ‘Pay the artist now!’
The IAA has published a 60-page handout on already existing exhibition remuneration models in Europe, plus documentation of the Brussels symposium ‘Exhibition Remuneration Right in Europe 2018’, which included a presentation by a-n CEO Julie Lomax on some of the actions and outcomes of our own Paying Artists Campaign.
Examples of remuneration models in the IAA handout include the Fair Pay for Artists campaign, organised by The National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) in Australia, plus in Canada the CARFAC-RAAV Fee Schedule and collective agreements under the Status of the Artist Act. It also includes info on New York-based organisation W.A.G.E., plus the Swedish MU Agreement and an explanation of the integration of exhibition fees into copyright law in Germany.
In a statement, IAA said: “Unlike other art disciplines, remuneration for artistic work is still not a common practice in the visual arts. In most countries visual artists are not being paid for creating works of art and showing them to the public. Neglecting to pay artists reflects the traditional assumption that visual artists typically get paid by selling their artworks, which has long been obsolete in most art institutions.”
The IAA states that even renowned and successful visual artists showing their work in prominent galleries and museums are still not getting paid to exhibit their works of art. “The system is still based on the faint hope that recognition will be enough to give the artist more market value for selling the artworks in the future. But for many artists that is not going to happen.”
A four-point campaign strategy has also been published, titled ‘How to campaign in your region’. It suggests that supporters:
- Send the IAA Europe Position Paper on exhibition remuneration to local, national and European politicians, art institutions, artists’ associations, collecting societies and media, and publish it on social media.
- Translate the position paper into their own language and send it back to IAA Europe, who will publish it on its website to document IAA Europe’s large network.
- Use best practice models when starting a deeper communication with local stakeholders on the best model for exhibition payment to artists. Add the IAA Europe Symposium handout and documentation to any campaign materials.
- Use the graphic elements of the campaign plus the message ‘Pay the artist now!’ and the hashtags #exhibitionremuneration #paytheartistnow.
The IAA is an international professional association representing visual artists which has been affiliated to UNESCO as a non-governmental organisation since 1954.
IAA Europe is one of five cultural regions of the IAA and comprises a network of over 40 national committees that each represent professional visual artists in their countries. a-n The Artists Information Company is the UK National Committee of IAA Europe, and this role reflects our work with international sector partners who share a-n’s advocacy and campaigning mission.
For more information on the campaign, visit www.iaa-europe.eu
Follow the campaign hashtags #paytheartistnow and #exhibitionremuneration
a-n Artist members: Apply for your IAA (International Association of Art) Card and get free or reduced price admission to these exhibitions and many more at museums, galleries and cultural institutions around the world.
Image:
1. Exhibition Remuneration Right image. Courtesy: IAA
More on a-n.co.uk:
Open letter signed by 120 academics calls for removal of Warren B. Kanders from Whitney board
Artists’ Books #38: Love poems in Braille by Stevie Ronnie
