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Total fee:

£98.70

calculated from:

£80 facilitator fee

£5.20 travel

£17.50 materials

20 young people attending, 2.5 hours.

Total travel time, there and back: 148 minutes or 2 hours and 28 minutes.

Planning and preparation: 3.5 hours, plus 1.5 hours spent buying or collecting or borrowing all the materials.

Total time spent, including workshop delivery:

10 hours

Back in December I was so desperate to get some work that I agreed to deliver this workshop. The booker was deciding between my proposal – a Batik workshop using flour paste – and someone else’s. Apparently, it all came down to costs.

Against my own ethics and out of despair, I agreed to reduce the cost of the materials for the workshop. This simply meant that I’d have to use most of my own materials and pay for some out of my pocket money. I knew the minute I agreed to this that it was a mistake.

I’m not pointing fingers however, as I know that fault lies entirely on me. Not only do I risk delivering a lesser-quality workshop or having to improvise the lack of materials but now a decently-paid 2.5 hour workshop has been reduced to a badly paid full day’s work (+2 hours), for £8 an hour. Half of what I normally charge for this kind of work.

I am also aware of the wider consequences of offering to work for free or for less money than you should be paid, whether in the arts or in any other industry. All this points back to the need for better wages within the arts, especially when you are working WITH people – in this case young people- which also requires a CRB check (now called a DBS!) and public liability insurance. Not to mention all the years of experience and training in behaviour management, child protection policies……

Should you ever work for little or no pay then? If in doubt, have a look at this chart:

http://shouldiworkforfree.com/

Next time I’ll address the issue of being a practicing artist working in schools and other education-related settings, like this one.


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It’s been an interesting week. Last Friday was my first day working at a strict Muslim school in South London, after the first session was cancelled due to weather conditions (I still went to the school, who “didn’t have my number” to let me know). Having been filled in by the artist who used to work there before me, I had a vague idea of what was allowed in art lessons within the religious beliefs. Not being able to represent human beings (faces or body parts) nor animals can pose a problem, but I have so far mostly been able to avoid it.

That aside, the school staff have so far been unusually amazing. For those who have worked in schools, in a freelance or one-off capacity, the following won’t come as a surprise: more often than not, when I go into a school I have the feeling of being ignored at best, or treading on toes at worst. Hence, I keep my head down and my thoughts to myself. I’m rarely treated as a teacher and never treated as an artist.**

Having a female-only staff room is an interesting experience, but far from the often tense atmosphere that pervades, the teachers here have been inclusive and friendly.

I also got away with doing a project I REALLY wanted to do. The school theme was “healthy eating” (so much fun – please don’t make me do it!) but luckily the year 5 teacher agreed to let me work with the children on a proposal for the Fourth Plinth. If all goes well, you’ll be able to see the work as part of this new initiative:

Fourth Plinth Schools Awards

Forget apples & bananas, this is interesting! I hadn’t been excited about a project in schools for a while, what with all the Egyptian masks, Caribbean fruits & QCA skills I was asked to cover in my previous school…. We’ll see what the kids – who have very basic art skills for their age -come up with.

On another note: after months of waiting, I finally moved into a new flat. I’ll leave my reflection on that for another time though.

**I get the feeling most art practitioners have had similar experiences?


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The title of this blog was borrowed from Sir Ken Robinson’s brilliant talk at the RSA, called Changing Education Paradigms.

Some of his ideas ring so true, that it makes sense to start this blog off with a link to the talk. (In fact, this link is a “summarised” version done by the RSA with an animation of the talk’s highlights)

Assuming you’re vaguely interested in cultural issues & education, then these will be the best spent 11 minutes of your day.

Watch video


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