Chapter Events - The Wales Burlesque Festival

We were contacted by the organisers of a proposed life drawing event at the Wales Burlesque Festival at Chapter Arts in Canton, Cardiff. They did not require a model as the burlesque artists would step up for that role but they did require a tutor, so I quoted the standard rate plus a fee for materials, which they wanted us to provide, so drawing boards, paper and a range of media. They also wanted us to promote the event and bring our artists to it, so filling their coffers through ticket purchases, as this is to be a ticketed event running parallel with the burlesque festival.

I sent a proposed fee of £90 which I thought very reasonable, £60 for the tutor, £20 for the materials and a piddling £10 for the admin, so with no profit to be made. This was responded to with a brush off and then we heard no more. I assume that the £90, which by the way we would have made for the event by bringing in paying artists, was way beyond what they were expecting…

Like all things Chapter, where the festival is being held, and like all things art, across the whole of the UK, through event organisers and galleries and photographers etc. cash and fair pay for a job done is never high on the agenda. ‘They’ all want something for nothing, or something on the cheap, relying on the enthusiasm or goodwill of those who actually provide art services. Chapter survives on volunteer and intern labour. This is disgraceful given Chapter attracts most of the arts funding in the capital.

We have been here before, campaigning for fair pay for models and tutors, and are now in the unenviable position of competing against other life-drawing providers in Cardiff who do not pay anywhere near the going rate for a life model and indeed who do not pay rent for their space.

Life Drawing Wales believes in paying the going rate for rent of the premises we use and in so doing support independent businesses wherever we work and as the leading life model group in the UK, we have always paid an excellent fixed rate for the model’s time. Our campaigning for others to step up to our ‘gold standard’ approach to best practice in provision has not won us friends, but hey ho, that’s how it is most of the time. Truths in the art world are not welcome.

‘Time for prints’ or ‘model for the experience and a sketch or two’… Fuck Off!

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