[-empyre-] the old payment problem

[Daniel Palmer <e@danielpalmer.com>]

hi everyone

i think this is my first post to this list, so hello and thanks for 
the interesting discussion, and melinda for the space.

like many others i sent melinda a note off-list about the issue of 
paying artists, and she has asked me to send my thoughts to the list, 
because i come from a 'curator/writer perspective'.  i do this 
reluctantly, largely because i simply don't have time at the moment 
to engage in an extended dialogue, and i always feel like a post to a 
list is a promise for such an exchange that i'm likely not be able to 
deliver on (trying to finish my phd and all that).

and i'm certainly not opposed to artists agitating for payment.

i should also note that i speak from the perspective of working at a 
small contemporary art space, centre for contemporary photography 
(http://www.ccp.org.au) 2 days per week, and what i have to say is my 
own opinion & may not represent ccp's 'official' position (as well as 
working at ccp, i teach sessionally at 2 universities 2 other days 
per week, and curate and write on a freelance basis).

anyway, at ccp, we currently pay the princely sum of A$100 to artists 
for monthly show in our modest e-Media gallery space; CD-ROM, net-art 
or otherwise... (if you're not famililar with it, the e-Media gallery 
a marginal space to the main galleries, but is one of, if not the, 
oldest continuing space for exhibiting digital art in Australia, & 
has a dedicated audience). without wishing to defend such pittence, 
it must be noted that one of the other (much larger) spaces in the 
gallery, the Project Space (usually for photos or video), is a 
*rental* space, where artists (unfortunately) currently have to pay 
$165 week to show their work...  (btw, everyone is given the same 
publicity, including the preparation of a fold out colour program 
brochure, and opening, etc.). so here's a case where hopefully it's 
not true that digital artists are being discriminated against.

rest assured that low/non-existent artist fees (or rental costs!) are 
a recognised problem at ccp, and this *is* often communicated to 
funding bodies - whose funding typically remains static (which means 
we're going backwards in real terms). it seems to me that a cultural 
shift is required in Australia from funding bodies if artists are to 
get paid properly to exhibit, and ditto if artists are to be paid for 
their work to be reproduced in underfunded art mags (and also if 
workers at most contemporary art spaces are to be paid for anything 
like their actual time & skills. on this point, fyi, I basically do 
not get paid to curate the emedia space, since i do it in my own time 
at home. and for the record, writers are not always paid either. 
being a freelance art writer or curator in australia you stand about 
as much chance of making a living as you do being an artist... !) why 
is this allowed to happen? as we know, the mere fact that we do it so 
uncomplainingly seems to enable our exploitation.

cheers
daniel