During a talk at An Exact Vertigo 2015, fellow dance artist Justine A. Chambers said that dance (and I’m paraphrasing) suffers from an economically survivalist mindset. She put forth the question: what could it be like to acknowledge the abundance of resources we might be able to call on in our communities, in our own bodies, in our friendships? As our structures for action, innovation, and presentation change, how might our approaches to making-in-precarity change as well? These questions are undoubtedly important both in the presence and absence of economic support for our work, and I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. In this post, however, most of the articles below deal with the bottom line: paying artists for their work. Read something lately that deals with this issue? Feel free to share, or connect with us to keep the conversation going: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
Performers tell museums to get their act together on fees, one of the many articles about paying performers for work in museums
From Montréal-based dance artist Catherine Lavoie-Marcus, THE JSC: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION, part of a group that organized an artist and arts-workers strike in 2015
From the experimental music world, Bonnie Jones writes about the myth of the mysterious artist and proposes a manifesto in ROUNDTABLE: THE BONNIE JONES GRANT: “I wonder if talking about the very unsexy ways we make a living threatens some myth of the serious artist? The serious artist doesn’t sell out. The serious artist only cares about the art and everything else is false. The serious artist never compromises their authenticity for money. The serious artist never considers themselves part of the nasty capitalist game where many fight for what few resources are available.”
From the UK, some thoughts on artists who try to do it all: In response to Theo Clinkard’s Facebook status
From another planet, Damien Hirst recently shared his opinion in According to Damien Hirst, You Can't Make Art Without Money: ‘“I think a lot of people think that artists need to be poor, or that you can't have a focus on money," he said. “When I did my auction, when I made all that money, it changed everything for me and it was made in such a short period of time." Ha. If you can sit through the thing, the interview is here – I couldn’t do it.
W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy) calls for New Museum to Fully Compensate Artists
Poet/rockstar/hero Eileen Myles on Times I’ve got Paid
And this recent, widely shared article from the CBC: Who makes up the 1%? In the arts, it's the bureaucrats
CADA/West recently updated their Fees & Rates Standards for dance artists
If all that money talk has you feeling down: Destiny's Child - Bills, Bills, Bills