Artists unite for a fairer deal

A new trade union for visual and applied artists has been launched, “to challenge the economic inequalities in the art world by working together to negotiate fair pay and better working conditions for artists”. Membership of Artists’ Union England is open to professional visual and applied artists. Trustee Margareta Kern, said: “Quite often, art organisations, which are increasingly under pressure to seek funding from private and corporate sources due to government funding cuts, are expecting an artist to work for speculative cultural capital, using the mythology of art work as pleasure, to not pay – or poorly pay. It is therefore really important to have a collective body that could represent artists for better and fair working conditions and rates of pay, and that could effect change more broadly across the cultural sector.” For the past 14 years, Scottish Artists’ Union has been the only visual and applied artists’ trade union in Britain. Executive Member Chris Biddlecombe said: “Scottish Artists’ Union are enthused and encouraged to see this artist group initiate the beginnings of a new trade union that will support and strengthen the position of fellow professional working artists across England.”