Artists and Writers of East Hampton
Initiatives
Member Initiatives
At the urging of board member and original founding member of the Jimmy Ernst Artist Alliance, Ralph Carpentier, the board sent a letter, approved at the last members meeting, to charities asking them to change the way donations of art for their benefits are made. Current practice has artists donating work for free and the charities keeping all the proceeds from the sale. At tax time, the artist may deduct the minimal cost of materials but not the auction value of the work donated. Typically this goes to the purchaser of the work. Many artists are happy to do this but for professional artists, the sacrifices are significant because they rely on the sale of work to support themselves. Ralph’s proposal is that the charities should pay artists the industry standard of 50% of the sale price of the work, and, then let the artist DONATE whatever he/she wishes to the charity. Remarkably our feedback from the charities has basically been, hey, we didn’t know this was a concern of yours, let’s try to work around it.
Members should talk up the issue with organizations that you donate work to. It is a win--win situation as it will make more artists willing to donate work and, in these tough times, make our community better off.
You can download a sample letter to charities here: letter to charities
Another initiative that the writers group has been working on is a standard contract for writers in our area. Many writers have either directly experienced or have heard from others that publications are paying late or not at all or now pay so little that a professional writer can not make minimum wage. Some publications (Vox Magazine, for example) have gone under or have forced writers to sue for payment. We would like to develop a standard contract for writers to use in working with publications. It would raise the bar for writers, and clarify the working arrangements between writers and publications in ways that would benefit all.
The Next Generation:
Starting an Art Career in the Hamptons
AWEH's 2nd Annual conference on Art and the Economy