Pamela Grombacher

Program:

Art Workers Badge launch
March 25. 16.00-18.00
The Event Series kicked off with the launch of the Art Workers badge, a new project by Irish artist Fiona Reilly. Many artists have to supplement the income they earn through their art with paid employment outside their field. The Art Workers Badge is designed to be worn by artists at their so-called "money jobs." Please see Fiona’s text at the bottom of this page for more information.


Just Business Agency TV Special
March 26. 16.00-18.00
The Just Business Agency will interrupt normal programming to present It's Just Television, a television special featuring By Way of Today, CaylaMae, CaW Research Group, Stephanie Graham, Leslie Lawrence, Jesse Malmed, The MorphoTransverse Method, Nice Talk, Postmodern Talking and Lea Devon Sorrentino.

AaBKC Social with Kelly Lloyd
March 27. 9.30-10.30
Kelly Lloyd led a discussion over breakfast about the research she engaged in during her recent tenure as AaBKC Residency's Fall 2018 artist-in-residence, which examined contemporary artists' livelihoods in Aarhus.

Århus Feminist Reading Group
March 28. 16.00-18.00
The final event in The Art Workers Event Series considered what it means to be an "art worker" through the lens of Julia Bryan-Wilson's text, "Occupational Realism." The discussion was framed by a talk by Fiona Reilly and moderated by Århus Feminist Reading Group.

the Art Workers Badge  

- by Fiona Reilly

The Art World is an unregulated gig economy. The reasons are many, complex and open for debate. 

Many Arts practitioners must take employment in another field to make a living.  Despite often holding college level qualifications on a par with other professions we are rarely financially rewarded to such a standard that we can support ourselves solely from what we do. Receiving financial remuneration for our work is sporadic, often low and at times difficult. When we are paid it is rarely accompanied by other employment supports such as holiday benefits, social security payments or pension investments. The time and effort we  invest in a project far exceeds our rates of pay as society still tries to comprehend the nature of art making and what it entails. Experimenting, thinking, imagining and failing are the bones of our work and they are unpaid labour. 

In tandem with this societal myths about artists and their lives continue to pervade the public narrative. The P.R Public Art Institutions employ implies a level of success for exhibiting artists that is often misleading. At the other end of the scale the myth of the starving artist who thrives creatively because of their poverty lingers in the shadows. An expectation of putting in your time or struggling to make ends meet before you “make it” exists. But what does it mean to “make it” as an artist? 

The Art World operates in many currencies other than money, its primary value system being the reputational economy. As such many artists are not in a positon to critique its practices or speak the truth of their financial situation. This results in many artists leading a dual existence between their practice and their money job, often doing so silently and invisibly.  Living between two precarious fields can have massive implications, practically, socially and psychologically.  

The Art Workers Badge invites you to consider this.