WAGE meeting notes 1/22/09

Reading of Hollis Frampton letter
Intro by A.L., reaction to Eflux, international response
Agenda:
Define for the group that this is a pro-worker and pro-capitalist group:
About artists getting paid for their work
This is not a convoluted cause
Response to why WAGE is important now, NYFA
Comp ad offered by Artscape
Steiner reads letters from various international groups, i.d. Scottish Artist Union, France, Poland

• Creating an accessible document of standard fees for talks

Contact writer’s union
Guidestar
Have we written letters to these museums?

4 goals for this meeting:
• Institutional outreach crew / letter
• Wheatpasting crew
• Organized survey monkey crew
• Webmaster crew / publicity
• Research crew
-public library may have a membership to guidestock
artist foundation and master of Massachusetts (talk w/ person)

-announce who we are in a letter of collaboration and openness, make it friendly
NEEDED, press release and letter (anna blume)

-last congressional session they have been trying to change copyright law, museums and libraries trying to take away your copyright protection- copyright and intellectual property illustrators partnership of America, museums say they can’t find the copyright and they want to be able to sell it, either you find the rights of use, create a thing called orphan search, legally ingringe the work, create a derivative work and still be able to use it if you come forward- getty could compete with you
-undercut visual rights act, related to antiquities black market
Royalties?

ECONOMY: a great time

b/c of recession there is added pressure to create more programming and it becomes prohibitive b/c of conflicting pressures

VLA, we have spoke with a few
Bring someone in to speak on copyright issues and whatnot

Galleries are not paying artists

Have been researching artists during the depression which is part fo the general relief of the depression, the new new deal and obama’s budget, there is an increase for national endowment for the arts, there is a moment in the great depression and there was relief for artists, in terms of the moment right now that’s a window of opportunity

The consignment for fine art law, where is someone consigns the work it is held in trust- changed the law on a state level- attorney general’s artist

Business report model;

Chloe: if systems are crumbling, there are gaps to rebuild and work with institutions that have a shitload of money, work with housing for artists where they are knocking on the outside- there are amazing global institutions that have to be very creative in social entrepenuial ways

Matt: guideline for best practices signed by us and other institutions

PUBLICITY COMMITTEE
STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE

Suggestion that when committees are formed they are flexible

Survey monkey to get anonymous information

Narrowed down to visual and performance artists and independent curators

Art worker’s coaltion, did they have a survey?
Figure out something
Let’s go into standards and practices and dealers and why is it 50/50\
Survey- ask about types of institutions, there are books- renee brooks
Ask how much did you spend on the survey???

Minnesota from artist count- get 06 data b/4 business data
If you take an artist

The artist pension scheme- a ponzi scheme

Business model- seems dated of what it means to get paid
What is our leverage? Best practices model, a baby first step

Rachel: one tier is the donor ear, a level of development, you don’t want to go over someone’s head- go for the donors

Not only focus on what they are not doing for us, focus on other ways they can help us to pay us.


Put link to emergency funding
Foundation for contemporary arts . org

Albee speaks out; Artists lose jobs at fast and furious rate

"At present, 90% of the money given to the NEA does not go to creative artists -- it goes to institutions and buildings; a kind of "Edifice Complex." Maybe 10% of it goes to the people who do the work that fills these buildings. This is a preposterous distortion of values. Not only should 90% of the money go to creative artists who, if need be, would be perfectly happy to work outdoors, but it should be creative artists who are making the choices as to which creative artists should be given these awards.

I have testified several times before congressional committees in Washington -- especially during my membership on the board of the New York State Council on the Arts -- and I have been continually shocked at the suspicion and hostility displayed by some members of the Congress to makers of the creative act. Maybe if they were writers, composers and visual artists themselves, things would be better."

-Edward Albee, LA Times, Mar 01, 2009

here's the link: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/02/nea-if-i-ran-th.html

And here's a link about artists losing jobs at higher rates:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/03/artists-are-los.html