VACE’s Statement on Pay Standards for Arts Workers
ABOUT VACE
Founded in 2020, the Visual Arts Coalition for Equity (VACE) was formed by a group of small visual arts organizations who saw the need to come together to make the arts sector more equitable, visible, and sustainable. VACE’s mission and values statement notes that “An equitable arts sector is one where resources and opportunities are allocated intentionally to achieve fair outcomes for everyone, especially people and communities who have been historically marginalized or harmed by our field.”
All of the founding organizations of VACE directly serve artists in the region and regularly present artwork through their programs. Our coalition represents an important part of the visual arts landscape in Pittsburgh as we all employ or contract a variety of artists and art workers. We collectively aim to improve our field and be able to better serve our communities. The members of VACE include the following organizations: Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, Brew House Arts, Bunker Projects, Casey Droege Cultural Productions, Nafasi on Centre, Silver Eye Center for Photography, and Women of Visions.
Statement on Pay Standards for Arts Workers
While many organizations use W.A.G.E for Work to set their artist stipends, VACE members have found that these numbers need to be expanded and refined for our region. Working with W.A.G.E.’s recommendations alongside our own research amongst coalition members, peer organizations within the region, and the Art/Museum Salary Transparency 2019 Google sheet, we have devised these wage and stipend minimums to balance the very real need for a higher wage and the very small budgets our orgs operate with.
In 2023, VACE members and peer arts orgs in the area, agreed to meet or exceed a set of wage minimums for their own organizations’ arts workers. As of January 1, 2024, VACE members have succeeded. We hope these additional stipend recommendations will now set the stage for raising our external payments to artists, curators, and writers we engage.
Coalition members see a need to address pay minimums for arts workers as a way to increase transparency in the industry and proactively prioritize the value that arts and cultural workers bring to our city. In 2021 the National Endowment for the Arts reported that Arts and culture programming has added 28 billion to Pennsylvania’s state economy. Despite this, the arts sector has long been plagued by low wages, limited compensation, and job insecurity, particularly for gig workers and arts entrepreneurs. We invite other arts organizations in our region, large and small, to commit to meeting these wage and stipend minimums and to share pay information more transparently. As Pittsburgh’s larger gentrification process continues to grow and as inflation rises, we must make steps to ensure pathways for the individuals and organizations of the arts community to exist. This kind of transparency and advocacy is critical to building those pathways.
Below is a description of the roles and wages we are committing to meet by January 1, 2024. These roles and numbers are based on our current organizational structures, which mostly employ part time staff at an hourly rate. Some of our organizations rely on volunteers or do not employ these positions, so each of us commits to these rates for the positions we are currently paying. These numbers will be reevaluated on a semi-annual basis to make sure they remain equitable.
Gallery Attendant – $15/hr
This role covers a number of duties, from helping guests find information on the exhibit or artist to ensuring that works of art are secure and protected.
Art Handler – $20/hr
This role is often responsible for packing and unpacking art, installing and deinstalling art in exhibitions, and moving art around the exhibition spaces.
Arts Administrator – $20/hr
This role can cover a number of duties including developing budgets, planning events and exhibits, outreach and audience engagement. For many of our organizations this role can even cover marketing tasks, grant writing, or artist communications. It may include managing volunteers but does not include managing other staff on a regular basis.
Marketing Administrator – $20/hr
This role can cover a number of duties within the realm of communications including content creation and execution with social media, email campaigns, print media, and events. For many of our organizations this role can fall within an overall administrator position.
Management – $21/hr
This role would include administrative and operations tasks while also managing other staff members or volunteers regularly.
Executives- $56k/year before benefits or $26.92/hr (for organizations operating with budgets over $250,000)
– $45k/year before benefits or $23.07/hr (for organizations operating with budgets between $100k- 250,000k)
This role is the senior operating officer or manager of the organization. It is responsible for steering the organization and managing its operations. In our organizations, this role often includes taking on any task that can’t be met by other staff to ensure the day-to-day operations continue.