Workbench Session: Fair Wages for Artists

Virtual Event: November 3, 2022, 4:30 – 6 p.m. ET

Assembly for the Arts is bringing a national expert on fair wages for artists to Assembly’s latest Workbench Session on November 3, 2022.

During this virtual session, Working Artists in the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.) will share clear parameters for hiring artists at a fair wage based on the work provided and offer guidance to artists who are interested in asking for what they’re worth. A discussion between W.A.G.E. and participants will follow the presentation to talk about how this plays out in Greater Cleveland, and what this could look like moving forward.

Since its founding in 2008, W.A.G.E.’s work has developed in service of a single achievable goal —the regulated payment of artist fees in the nonprofit sector. According to W.A.G.E., in contemporary art, unpaid labor of artists supports a more than $60 billion-dollar industry. W.A.G.E.’s mission is to establish sustainable economic relationships between artists and the institutions that contract artist labor, and to introduce mechanisms for self-regulation into the art field that collectively bring about a more equitable distribution of its economy.

Financial sustainability is a top concern for our artists locally. W.A.G.E. offers practical and actionable advice on how artists can negotiate their fees with confidence so they can be more financially sound.