Written by Tanja Thorjussen, Chairman of the Board of Tegnerforbundet
On June 7-8, NBK arranged the national meeting in Asker. This year, Tegnerforbundet had eight delegates at the national meeting and in addition to myself, Astrid Mørland, Sissel Horndal, Solveig Bergene, Marianne Darlén Solhaugstrand, Hedvig Lien Rytter, Laila Labba and Rannveig Mietinen participated.
I am very grateful that these seven members, who represented the whole country, from Finnmark in the north to Agder in the south, had the opportunity to travel to Asker and engage in professional politics in this way. Among other things, we voted on NBK's new action program, which had significant positive changes regarding the artist economy, and which I will highlight here in the member letter.
NBK has for a long time worked purposefully to strengthen the exhibition economy, but now the action program has a sharper focus on the faceted artist economy. Among other things, a working group will be set up to prepare guiding rates for different types of work that we artists perform.
Here are excerpts from the action plan, which you can also read in full here under agenda and case documents.
1. Exhibition economy
In order to achieve NBK's main objective of improving its members' income and working conditions, NBK will focus on the following measures:
● To revise and modernize the exhibition fee agreement between NBK and the state
● That all publicly funded institutions that exhibit visual art shall be bound by
the exhibition fee agreement regardless of whether the funding is state, municipal or
county
● Introduction of exhibition fees at all venues that receive permanent
public subsidies.
● NBK establishes a working group to prepare a concrete and transparent
model for how the exhibition fee should be calculated, with recommended rates.
● To establish indicative/recommended minimum rates and to offer concrete guidance on
remuneration for various types of artistically related commissions.
● In order for artists to receive reasonable payment for their work, NBK wishes to enter into
binding collective agreements for artists, and to offer concrete guidance on
remuneration.
The basic organizations with a venue will thus work together to develop a model for fees and indicative rates.
For several years, NBK has believed that due to the Competition Act, we could not prepare indicative rates. When TF created indicative rates for illustration and comics in 2021, we had several discussions in Tegnerforbundet, and with NBK, about whether this was possible. We now know how important it was to launch these, and how much of a ripple effect it has had on the field.
We artists MUST be able to navigate from something in terms of rates for work and realistic budgets must be set for the work. It is high time that we talk about and draw up good guiding rates for the work we artists do, and I am very pleased that this is so clearly formulated in the action program. We look forward to being part of this working group with the other professional organizations with exhibition venues!
The day after NBK's national meeting, Anette Trettebergstuen, Minister of Culture, launched the artist report at Kunstnernes Hus. Here she clearly emphasized the importance of a strengthened artist economy!
Image: Back from left: Astrid Mørland, Sissel Horndal, Solveig Bergene, Marianne Darlen Solhaugstrand.Front from left: Hedvig Lien Rytter, Tanja Thorjussen, Laila Labba, Rannveig Mietinen.
