CARFAC Alberta fights for the rights of visual artists. As a non-profit provincial cultural organization, we actively inform and educate visual artists, promote the visual arts, and provide professional development opportunities for Albertans, including our members, marginalized visual artists, and the public. CARFAC Alberta advocates on behalf of Alberta’s visual artists and works to improve the socio-economic conditions of all artists.
CARFAC Alberta is an organization that speaks for visual artists and those that engage with visual artists. If this is you, consider joining online at: https://www.carfacalberta.com/product/visual-arts-alberta-carfac-online-membership/. As an organization we welcome everyone interested in the visual arts and especially those that wish to see visual artists paid for the work they do. If you want to support but not necessarily join CARFAC Alberta, consider donating at: https://www.carfacalberta.com/product/donate/.
If you believe in visual artists; if you believe that the visual arts are important; if you believe that visual artists should be paid for their work, you should join CARFAC Alberta at: https://www.carfacalberta.com/product/visual-arts-alberta-carfac-online-membership/. Membership benefits include: discounts on insurance, extended health care, art transportation as well as access to over 55 years of collective knowledge on how to transform your visual arts practice into a sustainable career.
By getting your artwork out there, you gain recognition as a visual artist. You do not need a degree to be a visual artist, instead you need to make and exhibit your artwork. Many visual artists choose to take post-secondary visual arts education or take informal courses to learn at a faster rate than what may be possible on their own. CARFAC Alberta has a free digital document that can help you https://www.carfacalberta.com/becoming-a-visual-artist/.
We connect with community by taking a course, volunteering at a gallery, attending an art opening, visiting a gallery, joining an art club, art gallery or arts organization like CARFAC Alberta https://www.carfacalberta.com/product/visual-arts-alberta-carfac-online-membership/. Artmaking is usually a solitary pursuit, we need to connect with others to become known as visual artists and to begin to learn how to develop a sustainable career as an artist.
Best Practices are professional guidelines for interactions between visual artists and those individuals and organizations that work with them in a wide range of capacities. They are industry standards or what should occur whenever an artwork leaves your studio. Best Practices are not laws instead they are voluntary guidelines that work when artists and those that engage artists know the ground rules and wish to conduct business fairly. CARFAC Alberta has seven Best Practice documents available for craft, media and visual artists at: https://www.carfacalberta.com/resources/best-practices/.
According to Patrick Close (a member of the Best Practices / Industry Standards team at CARFAC Saskatchewan), “best practices can: define expectations for behaviour and interaction; strengthen community; create a pathway for growth and development; can provide a “how-to-do-it-right” guide; provide a context for voluntary sector bargaining; and lead the way to regulation and enforcement.” CARFAC Alberta believes that adherence to Best Practices will help visual artists develop a sustainable career and Best Practices are of paramount importance if we wish to create a healthy visual arts ecosystem.
The Following is from Alberta’s Best Practice on Contracts, Agreements and Negotiations (https://www.carfacalberta.com/resources/best-practices/): Formal written agreements and contracts increase protection for artists and their intellectual property, and clearly define the rights and responsibilities of both those who engage the services of artists, and the artists themselves. If you are requested to enter into a work arrangement that is not in writing, whether you are an artist or engager, you should request a written contract. If one is not forthcoming then negotiate who will create a draft contract. All parties should read, clearly understand, and sign the agreements. If you need to write a contract, CARFAC Saskatchewan has free contracts on their website at https://carfac.sk.ca/contracts.
“Has the artist been paid?” is an advocacy campaign developed by CARFAC (Canadian Artists’ Representation/Le Front des artistes canadiens) to educate visual and media artists and those that engage with artists about fair dealing. This campaign promotes a socio-economic climate conducive to the production of visual art and an environment where artists can thrive.
What does this mean?
CARFAC believes that artists, like professionals in other fields, should be paid for their work and share equitably in profits from their work.
Being an artist is a real job but not necessarily a typical one. Many artists do not work 9-5, instead they work the irregular hours of a small business owner. Artists usually work for themselves being self-employed and not employees. Artists make money from a variety of sources like selling their creative services, teaching others, and through the copyright and licensing of their creations. Being an artist can be both an economically rewarding and fulfilling career. Many artists also balance having jobs in other fields with an active art practice.
CARFAC-RAAV (Le Regroupement des artistes en arts visuals du Québec) provides minimum recommended fee schedules for remuneration of visual and media artists in Canada. These payments include royalties for the exhibition and reproduction of an artist’s work, as well as various professional service fees. There are different sections in the fee schedule that address each of these different sources of revenue for artists. Sections 1 deals with art exhibitions, sections 2-3 with reproduction royalties, and section 4 with other artist services.
Examples of tasks covered by professional services fees in Section 4 include presentation or consultation services, participation on a jury, installing artwork, writing tasks, or preparation of support for an exhibition or project. These fees are compensation for an artist’s time and labor only, and they apply specifically to work carried out by an artist as an artist. They do not cover work done as an arts administrator or teaching at an institution. CARFAC’s fee recommendations are considered minimums, and artists can negotiate for higher fees.
CARFAC-RAAV Minimum Recommended Fee Schedule link: carfac-raav.ca
CARFAC represents the interests of Canadian visual and media artists, and has established standards and fee scales in this sector. The CARFAC-RAAV Minimum Recommended Fee Schedule is widely recognized as the national standard for remuneration of visual and media artists in Canada. In addition to consulting with visual and media artists, organizations that engage with visual and media artists are also consulted in order to develop a fee schedule that works for both artists and those that engage with artists. Developed in 1968, the CARFAC-RAAV Minimum Recommended Fee Schedule has been updated through negotiation and usage, and it includes annual increases to reflect the cost of living. All royalties and fees are considered minimum payments to visual and media artists.
If visual artists are offered unfair compensation, they can always negotiate for fair compensation. If fair pay is not a possibility, visual artists can refuse to engage. Artists can always say no; they are not obligated to take less compensation than what is due to them. If artists choose to take on work that does not offer fair pay (even if they are offered other non-monetary benefits), their advocacy for fair payment is imperative to the creation of a healthy arts ecosystem.
As the CARFAC-RAAV Minimum Recommended Fee Schedule is widely recognized as the national standard for remuneration of visual and media artists in Canada, visual and media artists know what is due them in terms of remuneration. It is up to arts organizations and galleries to pay artists fairly. Fair payments to artists should be a goal for all galleries that work with Canadian artists since they need artists in order to exist and flourish, as much as artists need galleries.
Funders need to know that to support a resilient visual arts sector, we need to ensure that both organizations and artists thrive. Art funding organizations need to tie their funding to organizations that pay fair artists fairly. Organizations should be required to demonstrate that they are compensating all artists that they engage with in order to receive grant funding.
In Alberta, artists, organizations and funders are encouraged to contact CARFAC Alberta by:
- Email general@carfacalberta.com,
- Telephone 1.866.421.1731 (780.421.1731 in the Edmonton area)
- Office hours are Wednesday to Friday between 11am and 3pm. Our provincial office is located in Edmonton on the second floor of the Percy Page Centre (11759 Groat Road NW).