How Artists are Being Taken Advantage of & Preyed Upon
As artists & creatives, it is important for you to protect your artwork and intellectual property to ensure you have a sustainable way to provide for yourself. There are a lot questionable and potentially unethical ways companies may be attempting to exploit you. The best way to prevent that from happening is demanding transparency within the industry, establishing a standard of process among the community, and educating creatives within your community.
The creator economy is changing and we need more equitable pay + equitable opportunities.
The trope of the starving artist needs to end because all it does is disempowers the artist. The US remains the top dog as one of the strongest performing markets overall with sales over $10.3 billion in 2022 (source). Yet, artists and creatives seem to still be struggling to find viable opportunities with a sustainable income.
ARTPRIZE.
In Grand Rapids specifically, we have several initiatives and programming that are geared towards funding the arts with the city determining the overall goal is for economic impact and increasing tourism. The local community would probably argue to prioritize different goals.
A study done by GVSU in 2022, summarizes the economic impact of ArtPrize broken down by visitor types and measuring their financial impact so you can get a better sense of what is happening in our city.
Was Artprize 2022 your primary reason for visiting Grand Rapids?
VISITOR TYPES.
Local Visitors. Kent County residents-local visitors, historically have not been counted towards the economic impact because the idea is spending would have happened regardless of ArtPrize
Non-Local Visitors. This is defined by their primary residence being outside of the defined economic region of Kent County and primary reason for visiting is ArtPrize
Casual Visitors. This is defined by visitors already in Kent County for various reasons, such as family outings, business, relatives, etc. Historically, these visitors impact were not measured because like local visitors, they are already in town and are likely to have spent money either way. However, the drawback of not including these visitors can cause a study to miss the spending of individuals who may have spent more than anticipated because of ArtPrize.
TOTAL VISITORS.
The total number of visitors was estimated at 753,472 (420,150 primary visitors and 333,312 casual visitors).
Average dollar spent, per day, per person for primary visitors
VISITOR SPENDING.
One of the biggest reasons for our city to continuously push ArtPrize despite pushback from the community is their argument for economic growth. This study shows that all primary visitors spend an average of $32.05 with local primary visitors spending $15.31 on average in comparison to the non-local visitors who spend $37.72 on average.
TOTAL DIRECT SPENDING.
Direct spending is defined as purchases made from local retail stores. Indirect spending is when these retail stores must purchase more supplies from local distributors. Induced spending is when the store owners and employees receive more income due to visitors spending and they reinvest their income into the local area.
It is estimated that the total direct spending of primary visitors is $24.6 M with local visitors spending $5.3 M in comparison to the non-local visitors spending $19.3 M.
IN CONCLUSION.
Economic impact tends to measure visitors and their spending habits during ArtPrize. The economic impact and value that artists bring to ArtPrize and Grand Rapids doesn’t seem to be measured. Diversity, equity, and inclusion issues have continued to remain in the forefront of the pushback and the lack of accessibility to participate in ArtPrize as a local resident is has been brought up several times even though art drives the value up for businesses and property owner alike.
Goal #5: Reinvesting in Public Space, and Inclusive Programming
The Downtown Grand Rapids boundaries has a budget of approximately $2 MILLION to spend in 2023 specifically on the reinvestment of public space, culture, and inclusive programming. Yet, voiced concerns regarding the lack of inclusivity and equity rarely addresses the systemic problem let alone provide intentional and impactful ways to provide a long-term solution.
For 2024, the proposed budget and priority plan recommendation is to increase the budget for Goal #5 to $5.1 MILLION. (source)
HOW IS THE MONEY SPENT?
It seems smaller projects for local artists cap out at $10K in the downtown area which is unfortunate because local artists have been led to believe there isn’t a budget, funding, or money here in general to sustain and grow local artists.
However, our city is planning to spend around $150K to rent art from international artists rather than reinvest and directly spending with local artists.
Beyond that, some of the RFP seem to have exploiting languages in the fine print such as “work-for-hire” and/or waivers that strip artists of their copyrights and/or licensing options. It is important to note, many of these RFPs uses public tax dollars and/or grants so it doesn’t sit right to understand that the fine print can allow these companies to take ownership away from the artists.
One way, the creative community can combat this is to be transparent with how we are quoting our job assignments and sharing what these companies are offering so we can close the gap. Because creative work can vary so much, many of us do not know where to start on how to price out our work and that leaves room for companies to lowball us and pit us against each other by fighting for scraps.
The money is there and there’s no reasons our artists and creatives should be capped at $10K per gig and losing out on licensing and ownership opportunities based on the information above. Below is a form to create a database for creatives & artists to share recent rates & details about job opportunities. The more data that is collected, the more we’ll be able to close the pay gaps and make data-informed decisions when pitching for our next jobs.
Please share your submissions below. Once you submit your rates, you will gain access to the database and you will be able to see all submitted rates. This database is brand new so please be patient as it grows and encourage your friends to submit their rates so we’ll have better insights for pay transparency.
All submissions are anonymous. Submit your rates here ↓