dear sarah,
it is great to hear that the organisers of ISEA2015 Vancouver managed to
pay most artists for showing their work; this is, however, not a
"first", because we managed to do the same at ISEA2010 RUHR in
dortmund/essen/duisburg, and i assume that other ISEAs had varying
policies, too. - this just for the record.
also, i wouldn't speak of "showing the lead", since the principle of
pay-to-show is inbuilt with the ISEA structure, and exceptions from
this, mostly enabled by comfortable funding, are, i guess, only this -
exceptions to its explicitly "academic" symposium format.
regards,
-a
ps: however, i think that the original question of this thread -
compensation for interns - is a different matter which should be treated
separately. the battering of poor martin and katie could stop, but the
question of how to develop an ethical approach is well worth pursuing.
in my experience, an internship without monetary compensation can be
useful and educational - one of my first was as a curatorial assistant
for the 1988 Joseph Beuys retrospective in Berlin; the main benefit was
working inside the core organisational team for a couple of months and
seeing everything, ups and downs. i felt lucky and privileged at the
time to be given that opportunity. for me, personally, it was well worth
the investment of going to Dahlem, and then to Martin-Gropius-Bau, for
so many days, without pay. i would certainly not say that interns need
not get paid; but as an ex-intern, and as an organiser, i know that
there are situations when a good deal can be struck without paying
people in cash, if there is a stimulating working environment in which
(mostly) students can learn stuff they cannot learn in class. whether
these students want to, and can afford to, work without pay, is a
question of their own choice, ethics, and economics, and of their
bargaining power with potential employers. in my view, it would be a
pity if unpaid internships were called illegal in principle, or judged
generally unethical.
Am 25.08.15 um 16:33 schrieb Sarah Cook (Staff):
>
> I was very keen to know that ISEA in Vancouver this year was the first of that (now) annual meeting/symposium/exhibition where artists were paid (or at least didn't have to pay symposium registration fees) to show their work. I understand that wasn't water-tight across all aspects of the large event (exhibitions which were curated by external partners or were adjunct to the main juried programme may have had a different economic model), but it was encouraging to see Canada showing the lead again, as Stacey pointed out by linking to the CARFAC guidelines.
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