A Look back: Katriona Beales reflects on Artists’ Union England Chelsea Space residency
- Written byKatriona Beales
- Published date 04 October 2024
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From May to July this year, Artists’ Union England (AUE) took up residence in Chelsea Space, a public exhibition space at Chelsea College of Arts. Entitled ‘AUE Lab’, the research residency was led by National Executive Committee members and artists Loraine Monk and Katriona Beales, inviting students to sign up and join the union and helping to answer questions about life outside university.
Chelsea Space aims to present an exciting, engaging and culturally significant programme of residencies, festivals, performances, events and exhibitions that reflect and respond to the artistic approaches, disciplines and research focuses of the College. The programme also acts as a conduit to the creative sector beyond university life, providing a rich cultural programme that students can attend and take part in, alongside networking opportunities with industry experts, mentoring, and other professional practice collaborations.
Ruth Lie, Public Programme Manager at Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges of Arts said: “It's been absolutely brilliant to have AUE in residence with us, and being able to provide some space and time for them to research essential questions around the current professional practice landscape. Much of our thinking around the residency stemmed from the need to explore the way in which we operate as a large institution, particularly around issues like fair pay and working conditions. AUE being onsite at Chelsea College of Arts felt really important at a time when many students were graduating.”
Writing about the experience, artist and co-founder of Artists’ Union England, Katriona Beales, offers a reflection on the residency from their perspective.
Artists’ Union England is a trade union for visual and applied artists and artists with a focus on social engagement. We started AUE so we could have a collective voice to change artists’ working conditions. Originally conceived by 3 artists Angela Kennedy, Katriona Beales, and Sally Sheinman, AUE started life in May 2014 when the first 10 members signed the founding document.
We represent artists in contract issues, carry out casework on behalf of members and provide a number of membership benefits including legal advice. A key part of our work and campaigning focuses on issues of exploitation and low/no pay of some artists. This is only possible with the hard work of volunteer artists committing their limited resources towards the common goal of challenging structural inequalities. We have much still to do but AUE Lab at Chelsea Space provided a timely context to further our goals.
As an active campaigning union, we focus not only on issues directly impacting artists but also issues seeking to address challenges around social justice. Examples of recent campaigning work led by AUE include:
- Successfully calling on Arts Council England to remove the reputational risk clause from their NPO guidance. AUE continues to challenge attempts to restrict artistic freedoms and to stand up for artists experiencing censorship.
- Actively calling for a ceasefire in Palestine and supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
AUE Lab provided members of the AUE National Executive Committee with an opportunity to engage in some deep thinking to help shape the next 10 years of AUE and beyond. The AUE Lab also provided a space for meetings, such as our AGM, and developing our work around AI and its impact on the creative industries. We also used the residency to develop key public-facing statements such as our ‘6 Demands of the New Government’ election manifesto, promoted our members survey and started the process of collating and analysing the findings. As part of this work, AUE Lab hosted Zita Holbourne (Artist and Human Rights campaigner) and Industria during the residency. We worked with Zita and Industria to develop our long-term strategy.
We are committed to decolonising the arts and to equality for all including Disabled, Women, LGBTQI+, Black and People of Colour, and age inclusivity. AUE has an anti-fascist and anti-racist approach and we work hard to challenge the issue of systemic low pay for artists, as it is a key driver of inequality. We feel strongly that changing the low-pay culture will address under-representation in the arts.
Above all, AUE exists to remake the art world(s) and to stand up collectively for the rights of artists in their working lives.
Alice White, Community Engagement Manager at Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges of Arts said: "Artists’ Union England have been working hard for a long time to make the working conditions for artists better. As a team, we have learnt a lot from them, and this will continue to feed into our Living Wage Campaign work with Citizens UK, particularly targeting cultural institutions along the Southbank.”