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Creative professional are always being asked to work for free. Sometimes it’s sold as a donation, sometimes as ‘experience’ or ‘great exposure’. But people who would never ask an accountant or a chef to donate their time have no problem asking creatives to work for nothing.
‘That is definitely a problem,’ said Tamara Winikoff, Executive Director, NAVA. ‘I think there is a presumption that people who are involved in the arts do it because they love it, not because it’s their profession.
‘I don’t know where that presumption has arisen but it is very widespread in the arts.’
The catch-all argument for artists providing their work or services for free is that it helps an artist ‘build a reputation.’ But when does an artist draw the line?
Performer, director and freelance writer Maeve Marsden recently declined an offer for her feminist cabaret act Lady Sings it Better to appear in Australia’s Got Talent because exposure just doesn’t cut it.
Marsden writes for Daily Life, ‘I just can’t get on board with a business model that pays everyone except the artists who make it entertaining.’
As a mid-career artist, Kitiya Palaskas was surprised by the increasing number of requests to work for ‘exposure’ filling her inbox. ‘I guess it goes to show there are always going to be a company or two out there that don’t think about that kind of thing.’
With a strong following on social media and a steady stream of client work, working for exposure was no longer a draw card. Now the focus has become saying yes to work that challenges her creatively, as well as opportunities to work with big-name clients.
