The Council for Visual Artists for the City of Copenhagen (replacing the former Copenhagen Municipality´s Visual Arts Committee) has proposed that any institution applying for exhibition funds will have to include remuneration for artists in all new application budgets. As a newly established organisation in February 2019, this is the Councils’s first formal proposal.
Earlier this year, Franciska Rosenkilde (Culture-Mayor, Copenhagen Municipality) proposed the city commit the municipality’s art institutions to equality and diversity if they wanted future access to municipal art funds. At the time, BKF (Danish Visual Artists) asked that this proposal be supplemented with a demand for artist remuneration being included in any application for funding.
By endorsing projects where artist fees are clearly included in the application the Council for Visual Arts wishes to signal their support for an increased focus on fair terms and conditions for artists.
“With the decision we want to emphasise that artists must be paid for their work. Those who create the artistic content should be able to expect to be paid, as well as the other functions at the exhibition site. It is a cultural change that requires both small and large institutions to get used to the fact that artist salaries are part of the budget”
Hannah Anbert (Visual Arts Council member and visual artist)
“Politically, there is a focus on equality, both regarding gender and ethnicity. This also applies in relation to equating the artistic profession with other professions, where one is paid for the work that you do. It is therefore important that we, as a municipal council, help by showing the way” Gyda Heding (Council Member, Red Green Alliance in The Visual Arts Council)
Link to Article on Danish Visual Artists’ website (Billedkunstnernes Forbund), in Danish.