BBK Saxony-Anhalt e.V.

Halle (Saale)

Photo: Matthias Behne (lautwieleise.de)

Our association pays artists an exhibition fee because they naturally deserve to be paid for their work.

(Dr. Ruth Heftrig, Managing Director of BBK Sachsen-Anhalt e.V., Halle (Saale))

Since when have you been paying an exhibition fee?
We started systematically in 2015, at the time with the thematic group exhibition “Schnongs auf Hitsche” in Merseburg. Previously, artists usually contributed to our exhibition projects as “non-cash personal contributions” and were only reimbursed for travel expenses. However, project managers, curators and designers received fees as a matter of course even back then. In the meantime, we no longer have any projects without appropriate remuneration for the artists involved.

Do you / your company pay this exhibition fee from your own budget or from public or private funds, from subsidies?
Our two associations, the Berufsverband Bildender Künstler Sachsen-Anhalt e.V. and the Kulturwerk des BBK Sachsen-Anhalt e.V., could not finance their work without third-party funding. Every year, we apply for several grants from local authorities, the state and cultural foundations and also raise funds from sponsors or organize fundraising campaigns. Our cost plans then include items for exhibition and cooperation fees. While the exhibition fee is a kind of loan fee for the works of art provided, we use the participation fee to reward services such as transportation of the works to and from the exhibition, provision of text and image material and the like.

What form does your exhibition remuneration take?
We believe that every artistic achievement must be appropriately rewarded. To ensure that it is clear to both sides what we expect from each other, we conclude contracts for work and services that stipulate, among other things, what remuneration is to be paid, when and how it is to be invoiced and taxed accordingly. I have already talked about the division into exhibition and participation fees. However, there are also other forms of remuneration, for example for plein airs or symposia. In 2017, we held the “Metallwerkstatt Halle 17” symposium in Halle (Saale). The seven participating artists from Germany, Austria and the Netherlands received a fee for their participation and gave us, the organizers, the works for one year to present them in the public urban space. They then became the property of the artists, were installed elsewhere or even sold. We regularly organize our two exhibition series “BBKarium” in the shop window of our Halle office and “generell frisch”, in which we present our new members to the public in a group exhibition at various locations in Saxony-Anhalt. Of course, the aforementioned exhibition and participation fees are paid here.

Do you follow a certain pattern or is it always renegotiated or adapted?

We base the amount of remuneration on the “Guideline for Exhibition Remuneration” of the Federal Association of Visual Artists, which was published in its second edition in 2021 (see www.bbk-bundesverband.de /beruf-kunst/ausstellungsverguetung). The amounts vary depending on the duration of the exhibition and it makes a difference whether it is a solo or group exhibition. The location of the exhibition is also taken into account. In commercial galleries that market art professionally, there is no provision for exhibition fees anyway. But at non-commercial venues such as socio-cultural centers, public educational institutions, museums, art associations, cultural institutions, art halls and also companies that want to adorn themselves with art, the remuneration is adapted to the size and nature of the venues. A public museum with more than 100,000 visitors per year should pay more than an off-space with fewer than 10,000 visitors per year.

Further information?
For us, exhibition remuneration is a social as well as a cultural policy issue. Private users of art, such as doctors and lawyers with their practices and law firms, but also volunteers in art associations, often do not (yet) understand that artists provide a service that is comparable to others. Museums and other public institutions are often no different. They often still cite the distorting argument that it is good publicity for the artists if they can show their works here to the public. They would never think of arguing this way with representatives of other service industries. Without the work of artists, exhibitions and other public art presentations would not take place at all. So why should only those who are only of secondary importance, such as the curators, designers, musicians or caterers, earn money from it? After all, it is first and foremost the works of art that make up an exhibition. The fact that these are available to the public must also be recognized financially. This is also the responsibility of the public sector, which is committed to promoting art and culture, albeit usually only as a “voluntary service”. If separate budgets for exhibition remuneration are introduced in the budgets or funding only flows if it is clear that the artists involved in the projects are paid appropriately, then we will have taken a big step forward. Halle (Saale) in particular has been successful in this respect, and remuneration for artists has long been eligible for funding at state level and is taken for granted – even if it is not yet mandatory.

Halle (Saale), May 2022

Thank you!

Thanks to Dr. Ruth Heftrig, Managing Director of the Berufsverband Bildender Künstler Sachsen-Anhalt e.V., for the statement and the detailed interview! Further information: www.bbk-sachsenanhalt.de, address: BBK Sachsen-Anhalt e.V., Große Klausstraße 6, 06108 Halle (Saale).

Thanks to Matthias Behne (lautwieleise.de) for the photos and the design! Thanks to Matthias Behne and André Kestel for designing and conducting the interviews!