Cash in Hand

by Ruth Barker, 9 Aug 2010

Hello,
Firstly, I’d like to draw your attention to this contribute if you can.

Secondly, I’d like to draw your attention to this contribute if… well this one’s more complicated. If you follow the link, you’ll see that Shetland Arts and Mission Models Money are running a consultation looking at whether artists are likely to be benefited by having the option to take out loans. A source tells me that the loans they’re talking about aren’t too big (around £500) and are envisaged as paying for fairly concrete costs – for example paying to frame a painting that could then be sold.

But loans are still a contentious issue so in a way I’m surprised to see that the survey’s been launched. I’d be curious to know more about its inception. Why the contention? Well, perhaps it’s stating the obvious, but many artists are not in the most stable financial circumstances. What happens to the painter in the above example if the painting doesn’t sell? I hate to say it, but artists sometimes don’t make the most objective business plans!

My own opinion is that loans are never an unproblematic option – not least because of the fundamental significance of one person being in debt to another. That doesn’t mean that they’re not an option though. There are plenty of loans on the market already after all. I know that there have been calls from some quarters for the consultation to be scrapped, but this itself raises questions to my mind. After all, surely artists are responsible enough to make their own views known in a consultation format like this? If loans aren’t wanted or needed, surely people will say so? And, of course, it may be that some people would find a loan of the type proposed by Shetland Arts and Mission Models Money to be useful. It’s never been the case, after all, that all creative practitioners will fit into the same box when it comes to what they want or need to keep their practice going.

So I am interested to know the results of the survey. If Shetland Arts or Mission Models Money want to get in touch we’d be more than happy to hear from you. Likewise if anyone else feels strongly about this issue.

Let us know your thoughts,

More later,
R.

ps. Variant have reminded me that you can read some email exchanges regarding the survey – and an explanation of why Variant would like it to be withdrawn – here