TURF PROJECTS
Groundwerk 3.2 // ALTERNATIVE ARTIST ECONOMIES: CREATIVE WORTH at TURF Projects was a collaboration between We Hybrids and the Artist Union England (AUE).
This workshop was built around the story of Mary Fletcher’s fight for receiving compensation payment for a damaged artwork. We began the workshop by developing a short play which first explored a scenario unjust to Mary, and then looked for an alternative, positive outcome. Participants were invited to bring their own experiences to this process. In pairs, they built characters and later, as a group, brainstormed solutions to the issues that emerged. Through this process, they identified new possible ways of protecting their artists’ rights and developed strategies of self-support within TURF and the creative sector in general.
What often comes up during the We Hybrids sessions is the issue of isolation, which creative workers experience when faced with a lack of/ insufficient pay, rejection of a funding application or when negotiating with institutions. Through We Hybrids we attempted to channel the participants’ consciousness towards more collective ways
of organising their efforts, as a form of strategy. When doing that we remained vigilant about how we collectivise, critically evaluating the potential of unionising. Some of the questions we reflected on: How can we resist precarity and inequality? How do we make sure that Artist's Union England represents us? How can we affect its programme and policies?
