CARFAC Legal Needs Questionnaire for Visual and Media Artists
Canadian Artists Representation/ Le front des artistes canadiens (CARFAC) is conducting a survey to examine the legal needs of Canadian visual and media artists. Your responses will help us design services that best meet artists’ needs and interests. We encourage you to complete the survey and to forward it to other professional artists:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/62NV6YY
Every artist who fills out the survey will be entered into a draw for a copy of “Artists’ Contracts: Agreement for Visual and Media Artists”, published by CARFAC Ontario.
Your answers will be treated confidentially. Individual data and comments will not be shared with any other individuals or organizations and will not be released publicly.
In addition to this survey, CARFAC will host a panel discussion on artists’ legal issues at our national conference in Banff (May 13-15). Using the anonymous data from the survey and information shared by artists and arts lawyers at our conference, we will prepare a report, to be published in our upcoming newsletter, Calendar, with recommendations that CARFAC will pursue as a result of the survey findings. If you would like more information about this survey or the legal clinic, please contact us at communications@carfac.ca.
Please complete the survey by May 1st, 2010.
Federal government could invest in innovation through visual artists
For immediate release
News release
Federal government could invest in innovation through visual artists
Ottawa, Thursday, March 4th, 2010 – Visual artists are encouraged to see that the 2010 federal budget will maintain support for the Canada Council for the Arts but are concerned about cuts to the Department of Canadian Heritage. Given the ability of the cultural sector to attract talent and investment at a low cost, the cultural industries should be an important part of the federal government’s plan to foster innovation and economic growth going forward.
According to a 2008 report from the Conference Board of Canada, “Arts and culture industries are magnets for talent.” Current economic theories suggest that advanced industrial nations are transforming to knowledge-based and creative economies. Economic success depends on the capacity to generate innovated business models and increase productivity. Creativity is the source of innovation.
“Investing in the Canada Council for the Arts is a good way for government to maximize the impact of their investments,” said April Britski, Executive Director of the national association of visual artists (CARFAC). “Creating jobs in the culture sector is nearly ten times cheaper than some sectors they are focussing investments on. It’s also interesting to see a focus on giving Canadians access to foreign markets only a year and a half after cancelling programs that did just that for the arts.”
CARFAC made the following recommendations to the House of Commons Finance Committee. The full budget submission is available on CARFAC’s website.
Bring the budget of the Canada Council for the Arts to $300 million
Increasing the budget of the Canada Council for the Arts would allow them to increase funding to individual artists. There is a capacity for artists to create value that is being wasted because the level of investment is too low. Every year there are projects put forward by visual artists that are highly recommended by Canada Council juries that are turned away because of a lack of funds. Increasing the level of investment would allow the Canada Council to support high quality projects that are currently being turned away.
Allow artists to pay tax based on their average income over five years
The income of a self-employed visual artist can fluctuate widely from year-to-year. Exhibition and sale opportunities often occur in clusters as artists complete a project or series of works and it generates interest. A good sales year can be followed by several years of little to no income as the artist works on new projects.
Artists are, therefore, at a tax disadvantage – paying tax at a higher rate in a good year, even though that income will support them in following years. Allowing artists to pay tax based on the average income they bring in over several years would rectify this unfairness and help to ease the financial pressure on visual artists.
Assign a zero tax rate to income from grants and awards
Many artists’ incomes are supplemented by grants from municipal and provincial arts councils, in addition to federal funding bodies such as the Canada Council for the Arts. Receiving a grant is a mark of success and demonstrates that an artists’ work is valuable and successful.
Grant and awards are currently subject to tax deductions. In most cases, the amounts awarded are already minimal, and any deduction makes a big difference. If grants and awards were not subject to tax, it is money that would otherwise be invested back into the artist’s work.
CARFAC (The Canadian Artists’ Representation/le Front des artists canadiens) is the national association of Canada’s professional visual and media artists. CARFAC defends artists’ rights through advocacy and professional development and produces a schedule of artists’ fees that is widely recognized as the national standard. The Status of the Artist Act empowers CARFAC to negotiate with national organizations on behalf of all visual artists in Canada.
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For more information contact:
Melissa Gruber
Communications Coordinator
CARFAC National
communications@carfac.ca
613-233-6161
For media inquiries outside business hours, call 613-791-6411.
