Arts Makers Aotearoa / Kāhui Ringatoi Aotearoa (AMA) proudly announces the country’s first set of guidelines for Artist Fees. An artist fee is understood as compensation for content and services provided by artists to publicly funded galleries. The initiative was born from a need for more transparency, accessibility, and accountability throughout the arts sector. The guideline is designed to assist artists and galleries and ensures a minimum for fair and reasonable payment.
Founding AMA member and artist, Judy Darragh explains that “AMA has had a public consultation process with art galleries, organisations, and individuals across the arts sector. The resulting information is directly influenced by this consultation.” The rates will change with annual inflation and ongoing community involvement. With the understanding that every exhibition, artist and context is different, the 2023 figures were created through feedback from the visual arts sector, including independent creative practitioners, AMA members, Dignity and Money Now (D.A.M.N), the Aotearoa Public Gallery Directors Network (APGDN) and in reference to international precedence set by Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E, United States) and the National Association for Visual Artists (NAVA, Australia). The figures are seen as a minimum payment standard. The compensation floor is appropriate for smaller government-funded organisations with limited means but inappropriate for galleries with larger budgets that can afford to pay higher fees.
AMA was founded in 2020 and is a grassroots community of makers jointly advocating for artists to be recognised as workers and creators of culture. Arts, culture and creativity provide intrinsic, social and economic value to Aotearoa's national identity and wellbeing, and it is time for artists to be renumerated fairly. AMA acknowledges the need for public support alongside legislative and industry reform that places artists at the centre of the sector they are responsible for creating.
Find the Artist’s Fees guideline and other resources for artists HERE.
This work was made possible by support from Creative New Zealand.
Image supplied by AMA: designed by Lovely