Employing artists responsibly
The artist has a right to be paid for their time and expenses during the course of a project. If you are applying for funding for your project, it is a common expectation among funding bodies that the artist be paid in accordance with industry standards. Below are some websites that can provide you with information for the various artforms and their recommended rates of pay.
National Association for the Visual Arts - www.visualarts.net.au
Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance - www.alliance.org.au
Australian Writers’ Guild - www.awg.com.au
Artists should be paid appropriately for their years of experience and expertise. Many professional artists may have their own fee schedule. If the artist you wish to contract offers a lower rate of pay than the industry standard as a form of service to your community, always ensure that you acknowledge this as an in-kind contribution. Cost the project based on the recommended rates of pay and ask the artist to show their in-kind contribution as a discount on their quote for the project. This is useful for funding and project valuing purposes, and it gives you the opportunity to give appropriate acknowledgement to the artist within your community.
Selecting an artist for an artist-in-residence program
Sometimes an opportunity presents itself to engage an artist in your community. Whether you know who the artist is, or if you simply have a project concept in mind, there are a series of simple questions you can ask yourself to establish a clear picture of what you want to achieve through the project.
- Are there any specific artistic skills we want to obtain within our community?
- Do local artists have professional development needs that could be built into the project?
- Are there any particular sectors of our community with which we would like to engage?
- What potential project partners are there within our community?
- Do we want an artist to develop a new work for exhibition or performance?
- Do we have a local or regional artist that can successfully complete this project?
Once you know what your project objectives are, you can enter into a phase of project planning with the artist-in-residence, or develop a brief to call for expressions of interest from artists. As part of the brief, it is advisable to establish an application process. You can ask for information such as:
- curriculum vitae
- photographs and documentation of previous work
- responses to selection criteria that you have established based on your project’s objectives.
Treat this like the artist is applying for a job within your organisation. They are effectively representing your organisation during the course of the residency and you need to ensure that the person you are employing has the right combination of creative and communication skills to successfully deliver project outcomes.
Contracts
When employing the services of an artist, it is important to establish clear guidelines for the project that ensure your organisation meets funding requirements and the project’s objectives, as well as ensuring that the needs of the artist are met. It is best to outline all expectations and to address issues such as copyright in a contract. Sample contracts can be purchased from the Arts Law Centre of Australia at www.artslaw.com.au
When you explore the Arts Law site you will learn that there is potentially a different kind of contract for every type of engagement and many contracts are long and involved legal documents. If you are negotiating a contract for your project or drafting a letter of agreement or Memorandum of Understanding here are some of the elements you will need to include:
Possible structure of a Letter of Agreement
- The names of the artist and the person or group that is contracting them
- The timeframe of the contract
- The venue/s where the artist will be working
- Expenses involved and who will pay them: wages and other costs you will cover (e.g. daily allowance, accommodation, travel, materials) and the costs you will expect the artist to cover
- Dates set on the payment regime (e.g. periodic payments, payment on final delivery)
- Deliverables: what the artist will do for you and what you will do for the artist
- Outcomes that are expected in the timeframe
- Any commitments towards the maintenance of the artwork
- Reporting requirements to whom and when
- What to do if there are changes to be made to the contract during the project
- What to do if there is a dispute
- Room for signatures and dates
Remember that you have resources in your own community such as publicly employed artsworkers in regional galleries, libraries and museums and local government employees including community development officers who may have access to documents that they can share with you.