April Newsletter with Climate Survey

Spring is in the air and as the weather gets milder and restrictions start to ease, we can hopefully look forward to a gradual return to some kind of normality. We hope that this means that life will get easier for everyone.

It is hard to keep up to date with the ever changing guidance and information but the following Scottish Government information should contain the most up to date advice for our sector.

The Creative Studios and Shared Workspaces guidance is currently being updated by the Scottish Government and will be published shortly creative-studios-and-shared-workspaces

Also for information relating to Brexit you can check here - Culture & Creative sectors after Brexit

Climate & Sustainability Survey

We are keen to hear your views on another major issue affecting us all, that of Climate Change. The Climate & Sustainability Sub Group has been meeting each month and have devised a survey to get your opinions about this important subject. Please take a few minutes to fill out our survey, to help us gain important information about how climate change might affect you, your practice and your working lives. The results from this survey will influence and affect how we campaign in the future. 

We really appreciate you taking the time to fill out this survey, it should only take a few minutes. This survey will be open until 5pm on Friday 14th May 2021. We are really grateful for your participation in this. 

N.B. The next Climate & Sustainability Sub Group Meeting, will be held online, on Tuesday 27th April 5-6pm with a presentation by Fadzai Hamburgh Mwakutuya, on the subject of Climate Change Creative researched and created as part of Repository of the Undercommons (RotU) Collective.

Please let us know if you are interested in attending by emailing [email protected] and we will send you the meeting link. 

New Rates of Pay for 2021/22

We have updated our Recommended Rates of Pay, that should be used for the current financial year.

You can access these here.

May Elections and Manifestos:

In the run up to the Local Council and Scottish Parliamentary Elections on May 6^th 2021, members can view the political party manifesto’s here, so that you can stay as well informed as possible. Here are links to the manifesto’s that we could get our hands on. Some parties have specific sections on Culture, but not all unfortunately.

• Scottish Green’s  
• SNP Manifesto  – Culture is on Page 53.
• Scottish Lib Dems –
• Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party 
• Scottish Labour 
• TUSC 
• ALBA 

Here is a list of other Cultural Manifestos that might also be of interest.

• Culture Counts Cultural Manifesto for 2021
• DACS Manifesto for Artists 
• Visual Arts Manifesto devised by SCAN, Engage and SAU Visual Arts Manifesto

New Membership Packs

You should have recently received a new membership pack including your new membership card and a postcard from Gulabi Independent Film Lab, offering SAU members a 10% discount. Remember you can get a whole range of other discounts by checking the discounts page on the website members discounts.

A big thank you to everyone for your continued support of the union by continuing your membership, and don't forget the £10 Joining Incentive scheme to encourage new members, we all stand to benefit from a stronger union!

Another Survey: Engage Scotland Youth Arts Survey

Engage Scotland have received funding from Creative Scotland to develop a collaborative programme that supports young people aged 16-25, visual arts organisations/galleries, and freelance artists in Scotland, to respond to and recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. 

In this short survey Engage Scotland would like to hear from organisations and individual artists whose work involves engaging young people with the visual arts in Scotland. They will use the responses to this survey to inform the detail and structure of their youth arts project programme. 

Complete this survey here for a chance to win a £30 voucher for Cass Art or a free personal Engage membership (open to freelance artists, or organisations for a youth trainee, volunteer or freelance artist working with you).

Please feel free to share with colleagues. Follow on Twitter @YouthArtsScot #YouthArtsSurvey.

Check out our social media posts and please share on Twitter: @SCOArtistsUnion | FB: ScottishArtistsUnion | Instagram: artistsunion.scot

Support Your Union! Together We Are Stronger!

There’s never been a more important time to be part of a union, help us fight for a new ‘normal’ that supports the arts and culture!!

If you want to help SAU further please encourage fellow artists to join up, or get involved with the Executive Committee by attending our meetings (all currently online!). Email us and we will send you the link. 

Please help us promote the activities of the union on social media by following us and sharing posts.

We are here to help. We are a small team of part time workers and a voluntary executive, currently email is the best way to get in touch. 
Stay safe & healthy everyone.  

Keep on Keeping On!

Yours in Solidarity, 
 
Everyone at Scottish Artists Union