What if we paid artists to…just be artists?
Here’s the latest on LABA…Scroll down for the full backstory!
‘Let Artists Be Artists’ — 4 artists appointed to experimental employment scheme in Gloucester
Gloucester-based arts charity Strike A Light (SAL) has appointed four artists to ‘just be artists’ — working on an employment salary for 2.5 years, with no predetermined outcomes to their activity. The four artists are Munotida Chinyanga, Viv Gordon, Ed Patrick and Jamaal O’Driscoll…
Here’s where it all began
About LABA
For too long, there have been massive inequalities in terms of who benefits from ‘The Arts’ – both as audiences and professionals.
Artists go underpaid, under-heard and under-supported. And it’s not truly open to everyone. We want to change that.
So in summer 2020, with the world and the arts industry thrown into disarray by the coronavirus pandemic, we launched an experiment to test out a different way of working.
We thought that this moment, where there was no ‘business-as-usual’, can be an opportunity to build a new normal for the arts industry. A new normal that gets us closer to the world we want to see – where everyone can access amazing cultural events. Where the systems are:
- Fair
- Adventurous and
- Open to everyone
Everyone involved in this project is convinced that it’s really important to be as transparent as possible, and to ‘show our working’ – because this change needs to be bigger than us. So we’ll be documenting every stage of the process as publicly as we can.
To follow that progress, scroll through the timeline of the project’s stages/phases below. Most recent updates first!
And if you’re doing something similar in your organisation, we’d love to hear about it! Please do drop us a line at info@strikealightfestival.org.uk👍
Phase 4: artists appointed!
April 2021
‘Let Artists be Artists’ – 3 artists appointed
In April 2021, 3 artists were appointed to the LABA programme. Click the button below to read the statement in full.
Phase 3: artist callout
December 2020
Let Artists be Artists: recruitment call out
In 2020, we put a call out for artists to apply to the LABA scheme (16th Dec 2020). Click the button below to read more about this stage of the application.
Let Artists be Artists: Recruitment Process Overview
We also launched an overview of the application process (15th Dec 2020). Click the button below to read more.
Phase 2: planning the practicalities
November 2020
Update: discussion and planning day write-up
We had a planning day for Let Artists Be Artists. We wrote up the conversations that were had (18th Nov 2020). Read more – click below.
Meet the artists helping us to shape the process
We wanted artists to be involved in the shaping of the recruitment process for our Let Artists Be Artists experiment (20th Nov 2020). Read more about this by clicking the button below.
October 2020
An email goes out to partners and artists, inviting them to take part in a planning day.
Phase 1: the initial idea, & finding partners
August 2020
The Strike A Light recipe for great cultural events
In August 2020, we wrote up the principals/ model that we believe in. Click the button to read what we learned.
June/ July 2020
Let Artists be Artists 2021
A proposal for arts organisations to build a new normal, with artists and communities at its heart (9th July 2020). Read more below.
» THE ORIGINAL PROPOSAL
Funders and partners
We’re so grateful to all of the organisations who are joining us to make this a reality:
Strike A Light 