Jamie Ho
Gao: “Artists are treated like second-class citizens.”
Artists need to be paid fairly for their work.
Late last year, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) began soliciting artists to participate in Chroma, the museum’s annual “immersive color experience,” a fundraising party scheduled for April 17. The museum was charging artists fees upwards of $125 — $25 to apply and $100 for installation help if selected for the event.
It’s not unusual for artists to be offered a chance to contribute art for the dubious honor of “exposure.” But this time, Madison artists decided to speak out against the practice. Along with Jamie Ho, a photographer, and Jennifer Bastian, Communication’s arts manager, I co-organized a new movement, Equity for Artists, to respond to MMoCA and open a larger conversation about exploitation of artists.
Chroma is a ticketed event and revenue generator intended to diversify the museum’s audience. In a public letter to MMoCA, Equity for Artists pointed out that the museum was relying on artists’ free labor to support the museum, and that the community should boycott Chroma until the situation was rectified.
Within two weeks, 278 people had signed the letter. Beyond the letter’s demands for MMoCA to waive the fees and pay artists, the message of the letter struck a chord with many people about the broader issue of unpaid labor. It spoke to a population of artists that have long felt devalued by organizations that rely on uncompensated creative labor. It encouraged the community to think about social structures designed to extract the value of labor. It opened up the questions: Who do our organizations exist for? What social purpose do they serve?
On Dec.16, 11 MMoCA staff and board members and 10 Equity for Artists representatives met at Communication, the art and music venue on Milwaukee Street. Bastian and I led the agenda. Overall, the meeting was positive. Both parties agreed on a shared passion for the arts. The museum agreed to waive the Chroma fees and pay artists a modest $100 honorarium for their work. It also released a public apology for the misstep and a pledge to do better. At Equity for Artists, we celebrate the artists who stood up for change and made this happen. We commend the museum for meeting us on artists’ terms. We also acknowledge the gaps in perspective that arose during the meeting, which provide valuable lessons.
At our meeting, the museum representatives told us they believed that the protest letter should not have gone public, and that the letter felt “adversarial.” But we stand by the decision to release the letter. Public scrutiny remains an effective motivator for correcting injustice, and people in power need to acknowledge that. An individual artist would not have gotten the attention of an entire museum’s leadership the way 278 signatories did.
The museum representatives also said artists should feel welcome to contact the museum with concerns and feedback. This is not a solution: It shifts responsibility from those who perpetuate the problem to the people who are harmed by the status quo. It also fails to acknowledge the very real power disparity between institutions and individuals.
The fear of speaking up against exploitation is real and justified, especially in a city like Madison where paid opportunities for artists are rare. At the meeting, one artist talked about being urged by multiple colleagues not to sign the letter to avoid being labeled as difficult and blacklisted from future opportunities.
The museum’s representatives were quick to assure artists that none of us would ever face repercussions for participating in the protest. But it is a reality that a number of people in this community — including some in positions of power — urged artists not to participate in a boycott. According to the market research website IbisWorld, less than one percent of artists ever have their work shown in a museum, and the odds are even slimmer for artists of color and women. This creates an extremely lopsided power dynamic, where people who work in established institutions know that artists will do a lot for very little to get recognition that might boost their careers. It’s why artists are treated as second-class citizens while the value of art continues to rise.
We are at a pivotal time in history when more people are asking whom our major institutions serve. We need to hold space for critique. We need institutions to challenge their own privilege and lead by example. We need to go beyond praising artists as advocates for their own civil rights, and reach the day when artists are recognized and compensated as equals and leaders across industries. That’s how we grow.
Follow Equity For Artists on Instagram @equityforartists. The group is scheduled to meet Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. at the Central Library.
