On 31 January 2017, the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) launched its #FairPayForArtists campaign, asking people who care about ensuring the viability of artists’ careers, to sign a petition calling for a new allocation by the federal government of $5 million a year to enable the payment of artists’ fees by underfunded public galleries, at least at the standard rate listed in the industry’s code of practice. Artists are both valued for their contribution to society and fairly remunerated for their time and skills.
The campaign has three components: $5 million for artists’ fees; superannuation for artists and other art professionals; and an artists’ income supplement pension scheme:
NAVA is proposing that these funds be distributed through a newly established Artists Fees Fund administered by the Australia Council. The fees would be paid for work commissioned or borrowed by public galleries for exhibition where the work is not for sale.
Tamara Winikoff OAM, Executive Director of NAVA said today, ”We are calling on the federal government to demonstrate that it has a vision for Australia culture by providing $5 million to enable galleries to pay those who make the art. The NAVA campaign is bent on making change so that artists’ work is appropriately valued and respected and artists and other art professionals are fairly remunerated for their time and skills.”
NAVA is also seeking a solution to the problem of erratic payment of superannuation to artists and other art professionals who provide services to the industry. Unlike most other professionals, they are not consistently being enabled to provide for their old age.
NAVA is equally concerned that artists need to have a guaranteed living wage. The social security system is not geared to respond appropriately. NAVA is calling for the establishment of an Artists Income Supplement pension scheme to support artists when their income drops below the poverty level. To resolve the challenges and change the culture, NAVA’s campaign will build on its research done in 2016 and will involve a series of consultation meetings with politicians and federal and state arts funding bodies, based on the findings from a series of roundtables with all types of galleries, artists and other art professionals from across Australia.
Photographs: Tanja Bruckner, 2017
