Workshop: Mapping Precarity

An intro to Platform BK, Fair Practice and precarious positioning.

What is Fair Practice in the Arts? What should artists and art professionals expect as a fair pay? How can we better understand the precarious state of art workers?

Cultural workers often live in a state of precarity, working as freelancers, self-employed, volunteers and interns. Paying artists is often the last priority for many institutions. In fact, an artist’s income is often below national minimum wage, and frequently it even falls under the poverty threshold.

With precarious working conditions being the norm in the arts, Platform BK has been working on strengthening the socio-economic position of cultural workers in the Netherlands, fighting against the all-too-commonly accepted instability lived by many professionals.

This workshop – adapted from Precarious Workers Brigade Handbook – can help us better understand the conditions lived and experienced by cultural workers.

Through appreciating social, political, economic and other factors which determine precarious working conditions, we can develop sharper and more sensitive understandings of how we as individuals and communities negotiate the various contexts that organise our work/ life as arts professionals.

How can we relate to work as freelancers, self-employed, employee, volunteers, interns or these and other positions in combination? When do we find that these roles overlap and when are they clearly defined?

Photo credit: ChunYoa Lin

Mapping out these relations between professionals, individuals and communities can help us recognise when we are facing exploitation, as well as where and how it occurs. This represents the foundations to self-organising networks of solidarity which can resist injustice and promote more equitable alternatives marked by fair wages, desirable life/ work situations and safe working conditions for cultural workers.

The exercises in this workshop will present alternative pedagogies, critical thinking, and useful definitions. Drawing from personal experiences and practical engagement, we will position ourselves to recognise the specific circumstances and the situated conditions from which we act.

If you would like to have specific information about the workshop feel free to contact us at hello@theartistandtheothers.nl