supporting artists' professional development
NAVA campaigns and advocates for artists’ rights and the needs of the Australian visual arts sector as a whole. Since its formation in 1983, NAVA has been a powerful force in bringing about policy and legislative change to encourage the growth and development of Australian visual arts and craft.
Should artists’ fees be mandated in Australia and if so, at what level?
Until 1997, the Australia Council mandated the payment of artists’ fees according to a schedule it published in its Grants Handbook. In 2001, NAVA published recommended fees scales in its Code of Practice for the Australia Visual Arts and Craft Sector. These were updated in 2004. In 2005 a group of artists (Sydney Art Scene Society) called for the mandating of artists fee payments for any exhibition of their work in a public gallery. In response NAVA undertook further research into what are the good and bad of the current system, taking into account the mix of incomes and expenditures for an artist trying to get his/her work to the public. The outcomes are a series of recommendations including that there should be a new allocation by federal and state/territory governments of $3 million per year, earmarked for the payment of artists’ fees.
September 2005: NAVA online survey
A total of 179 people completed the online survey of artists’ fees in the NAVA forum For Fee or For Favour. Of those, 161 identified as either an artist or a craftsperson. Of the 116 artists who had had an exhibition in a publicly funded venue since 2000, 63.6% had an exhibition in 2005. The most frequently listed type of venue was a regional gallery, with 38.3% of respondents. The second largest ‘type of gallery’ category was ‘other’ and the predominant ‘other’ was a university, TAFE or art school gallery. More.
Making Ends Meet: Five Strategies by Lucas Ihlein
Lucas Ihlein was a winner of the Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists in 2003. He discusses some of the ways artists “can make ends meet.”
The equation is pretty simple really. It's about two factors: time and money. Finding enough of a balance of the two enables an artist to make good stuff. And that's what keeps us happy. The following list of strategies will probably be familiar to most visual artists, whether they are in the habit of selling their artwork or not. More.
In September 2005 NAVA conducted an online forum on artists’ fees moderated by Julianne Pierce and Adam Geczy. NAVA has kept an archive of this discussion and the issues and opinions raised by its participants. To access this archive click .
For more information on current fees and wages in the sector, go to the Advice Centre.
