STARA - 14.11.2015, Blaðsíða 35

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The government’s understanding is
not sufficient; we need more insight
into our work. Artists themselves
also need a change of heart as do
many others working within the art
field. The opportunity is here and
now. If not us, then who? If not now,
then when? We finally have a tool at
our disposal – a draft of a contract
between visual artists and public
museums – a tool we can use to
change the old traditions surround-
ing exhibitions in galleries run on
public funding. That contract needs
to be publicized, our rights need to be
championed, and that change of heart
needs to happen.
We now have the chance to dismantle
the ingrained idea that visual artists
should not be paid for their work.
The campaign WE PAY ARTISTS will
be launched on November 20th 2015
at 4PM at the Nordic House. The pur-
pose of the campaign is to promote
visual art’s field of work and enable
artists to be paid for their work.
When other fields of art are consid-
ered, it is rare that artists with experi-
ence and expertise in their field, like
those offered to display their work in
public museums, do not get paid for
their work contribution. It is the hope
of SÍM’s board that this campaign will
change the minds of visual artists, the
public, and officials of museums and
cultural institutions, as well as mu-
nicipal governments and the state.
At the centre of this campaign is the
newly drafted contract about partici-
pation and contributions for artists
in exhibitions. This draft could be
the foundation of a contract with all
museums in Iceland and exhibitions
funded by public offices, partly or
completely.
On the behest of SÍM, a decision was
made to assemble a workgroup in col-
laboration with the National Gallery
of Iceland, Reykjavík Art Museum,
Hafnarborg – The Hafnarfjörður
Centre of Culture and Fine Art, The
Living Art Museum, LÁ Art Museum,
and Akureyri Art Museum. Members
of the workgroup were, the visual
artists Ilmur Stefánsdóttir and Úlfur
Grönvold (on behalf of SÍM),
Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir, director of the
Living Art Museum (On behalf of
the museums), and Dr. Halldór Björn
Runólfsson, museum director of
the National Gallery of Iceland. The
group manager was the visual artist
Ásdís Spanó.
During the creation of the draft the
workgroup referred to the Swedish
MU (Medverkande og Ustallnings-
ersattning) contract. The Swedish
government signed a contract in 2009
allocating compensation toward art-
ists who display their work in public
museums in Sweden. These compen-
sations are in addition to payments
for transportation, installation and
publication of material for the artist’s
exhibition. The contract stipulates
that the museum must pay for all
work the artist takes on in relation to
the exhibition - before, during, and
after it. A written contract shall be
drawn about every item concerning
salary according to the contract’s rate,
as well as the compensations about
displayed work. The MU contract
has been the basis of comparable
contracts in Norway and Denmark.
Similar contracts are being drawn up
in Finland and Austria, also based on
the MU contract.
The board of SÍM welcomes as a
milestone the current draft which can
be used as a reference point for art
museums and artists. Work has begun
on a cost analysis for the contract in
accordance with the museums’ last
operational year in order to gauge the
influence of the contract. It is known
that museums in Iceland do not have
the resources for increased costs.
This is why those who operate in the
visual art work environment need
to work together as one; to change
the general attitude and increase the
budget of visual art related matters in
order to make the contract viable. It
is reasonable to insist that the work
environment of visual artists better
resemble the work environment of
other professions.
In addition to the work on the new
contract between artists and public
museums, SÍM has started a twofold
petition to highlight the importance
of the big public funds for visual art-
ists and art scholars. We object to the
cutbacks to the main funds available
to visual artists, The Visual Art Fund
and The Public Buildings Art Fund,
and challenge Parliament to show
ambition and foresight and allocate
52 million ISK to The Visual Art
Fund and 10 million ISK to The Pub-
lic Buildings Art Fund for 2016. The
plan is to present Vigdís Hauksdóttir,
president of the budget committee,
with a petition during the meeting in
the Nordic House on November 20th.
I want to thank the workgroup for the
contract on a job well done, and the
art museums for a successful coop-
eration. I would also like to thank
everyone who had a hand in the
WE PAY ARTISTS campaign.
It is crucial that artists stick together
in the coming months and collaborate
on getting paid for their work. Now is
the time for a change.
“We now have the chance to dismantle the
ingrained idea that visual artists should
not be paid for their work.”