I’ve been finding a bit difficult to write the blog recently; too much upheaval and not enough time to do my usual reading around and pondering on things to form much opinion on monetary matters. Linz also confused things so I don’t want to do the same thing with the YSP project, although it is bound to feed into things (see below).
One thing I thought might be important for future entries is focusing on positive things. It is too easy to point out the bad when it comes to artists (not) getting paid. I will still be highlighting organisations and opportunities that seem to be taking advantage, although Susan Jones did point out recently (after Topshop I think), that it may be a case of ignorance – they are not trying to rip people off, but perhaps they are just copying practices they have seen elsewhere and think that is the normal way of going about things. So, although I still can’t help getting angry about these situations, perhaps the most useful thing is advocacy. Indeed I did take it upon myself to calm down and write to TS explaining why I thought they were setting a bad example and how they might hold a competition according to recommended rates of pay. No reply as yet. I have been in to see what was on the walls, but I have no idea if an artist did it as it looks like a print over the three floors. It certainly doesn’t look like anyone painted it…
So yes, I will try for more happy thoughts. There are a lot of people working hard to change things out there and not enough sharing of that.
