What is fair? Welcome to SOTA on TAZ!
Hopefully you are enjoying a summer break and not reading this.
Hopefully you are reading this and fancying an outing?
We live on hope! We are hoping for you!
Join us at our Fancy Fair in Ostend, on 2 August
What do you consider to be ‘fair’? And what not? What is and what is not done? Now that everyone is talking about ‘fair practice’, and then usually thinks of ‘fair pay’ only, we feel the need to have an honest exchange of ideas about what ‘fair’ in a broader sense means and where the boundaries lie. What are the dilemmas you encounter? What are real issues in which you have doubts?
Fancy Fair is a morning talk by SOTA at Theater Aan Zee about the tensions between art and activism, ecology and artistic ideals, artistic practices and institutional agendas… Throw into the group what you want to talk about.
Monday 2 August, 10h00-12h30, Café Koer, Leopoldpark, Ostend.
It’s for free, so unpaid labour!
In the afternoon you can join TAZ’s Sector Moment: an informal café in KAAP on the Zeedijk, with a living library, young authors reading texts and SOTA opening a special box of fair games. Do you want to come and play?
Join in the conversation with a random Antwerp inhabitant
Does your bubble bother you sometimes too? Do you only speak to peers, while the rest of society often seems to think very differently? Join Door to Door in Antwerp on the weekend of 9-10 October!
Door to Door is a project around dialogue by SOTA and Hart boven Hard. Concerned about the increasing polarisation, we engage in open one-on-one conversations in the public space in which we address issues in society. With the help of artistic tools. Such conversations are not only very revealing, we also believe that these real conversations can make a difference.
Are you curious what that would be like? After conversations in Kortrijk, Dilbeek, Turnhout and Tongeren, Door to Door is looking for 50 artists and other citizens in Antwerp to take up the challenge. Read more here, register your interest and we will keep you informed.
1, 2, 3 times attention to the socio-economic position of the artist!
Three times is the charm. Finally some light at the end of the tunnel?
Proposal for a guideline for fair remuneration in the visual arts
The 2016 study Loont Passie? confirmed that visual artists as a group are by far the worst paid of all artists. In the autumn of 2020, a working group led by Kunstenpunt, Cultuurloket, oKo, the NICC and SOTA started drawing up a framework for the fair remuneration of visual artists and freelance curators. This framework follows the principles of ‘Juist is Juist‘ (Right is Right), the online toolbox initiated by oKo, that defines clear fair practices for collaborations in the arts sector.
These guidelines, as we know them in other European countries, will be available in Flanders (and later hopefully for all of Belgium) as of September. The goal is to support and facilitate the discussion about remuneration in the sector and to raise awareness for an improvement of the situation for artists.
Read all about the process and next steps here.
Follow-up research on Loont Passie?
Every testimonial is valuable! Deadline 08 August
The already iconic and very pertinent study “Loont Passie?” dates back to 2016. Time for an update. The Department of Culture, Youth and Media (CJM) is therefore funding a new study that will be carried out by the CuDOS research group, that signed already for the last one.
They will interview a broad group of creative professionals (architects, actors, visual artists, circus artists, composers, dancers, designers, etc.).
The research – led and executed by Jan Ferwerda, with Mart Willekens and Jessy Siongers as supervisors – has a dual purpose. On one hand, the researchers will collect representative and recent figures about the socio-economic status of creative professionals and place them alongside the figures and results of previous studies. Secondly, they want to investigate the current impact of COVID-19 on the employment situation and earnings of creative professionals. The research will be done by means of a survey (cfr. the previous studies) and focus group discussions with creative professionals.
Participate and fill out the survey now!
Your help is crucial in mapping out the sector. The more precise the information, the better the solution. Thank you!
Working in the Arts: first proposals of the technical working group on improving the socio-economic position of the artist are public!
Last, but not least: a proposal for the reform of the Artists’ Statute!
In order to reform the existing ‘Artists Statute’ and to improve the social protection of artists, this spring the federal government initiated the Working in the Arts project. SOTA was invited to be member of the technical working group, consisting of a wide range of art workers, representatives of the RVA, of the various cabinets involved (Dermagne, Vandenbroucke and Clarinval) and a number of experts. Together, they spent weeks of discussion looking for the best solutions to existing problems. The first results are now on the table, both in Dutch and in French.
Would you like to know more or give your input?
On Monday 26/07, from 13 – 14h30 you are welcome at the online lunch meeting for all your questions. SOTA will then publish its own feedback on the proposals.
Sign up here.