W.A.G.E.

Wasn't there but I imagine it would have been good to hear all the points of view and how the discussion evolved after the speakers' finished.

    

A report on the event by Chris Sharratt on a-n describes: 

"A speaker from New York's W.A.G.E. campaign joined Glasgow-based artists this week to talk about the 'non' payment of artists' fees. a-n reports from Glasgow...

The main speaker on the night was Lise Soskolne of W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy). She offered an enlightening and entertaining overview of the New York activist group’s campaigns and research. Setting the group’s work in context, she said: “People in New York are just baffled by what we do – it’s like, why should artists get paid?”

Formed in 2008, W.A.G.E. is not a union. It campaigns specifically around the issue of artists’ fees, focusing on not-for-profit galleries and museums. Soskolne showed a W.A.G.E. campaign video that distilled its objectives into succinct slogans, such as ‘Renumeration of cultural value in capital value’; ‘Mutual respect between artist and institution’; and – one for every artist, surely – ‘We demand payment for making the world more interesting’...

It was, though, rather more recent information regarding New York’s art scene that proved most shocking. Soskolne talked about the results of a recent survey into artists’ fees, based on the responses of artists. By far the worst offender was Performa, ‘the internationally acclaimed biennial of new visual art performance’.

“Performa were upset by this, which is good – I think you call it naming and shaming in the UK,” said Soskolne. “They got in touch and said they wanted to make a statement. W.A.G.E. responded with, ‘Yeah, let’s meet, we’d like to see your budget.’” They're still waiting for a reply."

Check out this link to the letter Hollis Frampton sent to the Film Curator of MoMA in 1973 when he was asked to take part/comply with a retrospective of his films, with 'no money' given to him. 

I plan to keep up-to-date with W.A.G.E. via their website.