Assembly: A Forum for Artists in Precarious Labour
The NewBridge Project : Gateshead

Free, all welcome
Feel free to attend as many of the events as you can, but it would be fantastic to have a core group attending and contributing to the whole series if possible.

Assembly: A Forum for Artists in Precarious Labour is a series of six open forums inviting artists to freely and frankly discuss their own working lives. In an art field characterised by low pay and precarious labour, more and more artists are turning to the platform economy (Airbnb, Deliveroo etc.) and other forms of gigwork as a means of supporting their practices. These open forums serve as a form of collective enquiry, considering what this means for artists, and for the entrenched inequalities of the art field. Each forum will be led by artist Toby Lloyd in collaboration with invited facilitators, but will prioritise the lived experience of all participants.

The first workshop will bring together artists from different communities to discuss working conditions and how artists support themselves in a stigma free environment. The following workshops will focus discussion on the role of unions and solidarity in improving workplace conditions, the prevalence of in kind labour in the cultural sector and its impact on young artists, and address the findings of the ‘Panic!’ report and address issues of diversity, accessibility and lack of equitable pay in the arts. The final two workshops will conclude the series by hosting conversations about alternative funding structures and finding practical solutions to the problems highlighted throughout the forums.

Assembly 4: Power

14th November 2019    10.30am- 12.30

The workshop will examine the findings of the Panic! report and discuss policy changes within the arts sector that can address the issues of diversity, accessibility and lack of equitable pay.

This workshop will be led by Priya Mistry