September 2024 Newsletter for SAU Members

RALLY OUTSIDE HOLYROOD

Scottish Artists Union President, B. D. Owens, Finance & Operations Manager, Karen Vaughan, and Rep Coordinator and Caseworker, Megan Chapman joined many of our members in a crowd of several hundred to protest the Scottish Government’s cuts to arts funding. Thanks to all our members for attending this important and powerful demonstration. Thanks also to everyone at Govanhill Baths for organising transport to the demo.

Equity organised the protest at Scottish Parliament, and the trade unions who gave speeches and performances were: Equity, BECTU, MU, and Society of Scottish Playwrights. Roz Foyer STUC General Secretary also gave a rousing speech. Roz Foyer and represetatives from these unions went into Parliament after the protest to meet with Cabinet Secretary Angus Robertson. 

This rally was organised as a result of Creative Scotland's shock announcement to end the Open Fund for Individuals. See the announcement on Creative Scotland’s website. The Scottish Government has since announced the reinstatement of Creative Scotlands Funding and that the fund will re-open, although there are currently no clear details about when or how this will happen. We continue to watch this situation closely and will work with the other creative trade unions to make sure that funding for Individuals does resume. The Unions in the STUC Creative Industries Trade Unions Group are: SAU, Equity, BECTU, MU, Society of Scottish Playwrights, Writers' Guild (WGGB), NUJ, and Society of Authors. 

Thanks also to everyone who came out to George Square, Glasgow on Saturday 7th September to Protest Against The Far Right.

It was a really good turn out with a great atmosphere, and great to see so many SAU members, with friends and families together opposing Racism and Facism. "We are many and they are few". You can read the STUC solidarity statement here  

Thanks to everyone who came along to our AGM on SATURDAY 24th August!

We had the highest attendance for an AGM (Annual General meeting) with over 70 people attending online. We passed several motions that were proposed by the SAU Executive Committee and also by Members. You can read the results of these here.

Membership Survey Report

Our recent Membership survey report is now available to read and download from our website. You can read the whole report 

Here are some Key findings: 

78% of artists are self-employed and 47% are full time practitioners. 

59% earn less than £9k per year and only 11% earn more than £20k per year.

33% are disabled and 25% are neurodivergent.

40% have informal caring responsibilities.

25% are struggling to meet their living costs.

64% feel concerned about retirement provision.

42% have experienced discrimination in their art sector workplace.

45% have experienced contractual issues, often from lack of contracts. 

33% are never paid according to SAU recommended payment guidelines.

Only 35% are confident they will be able to pay their studio rent over the next year.

78% say that Brexit has had a negative impact on their visual and applied arts practice.

We would also like to give a big THANK YOU to all our members who gave up their time to complete the survey, we really appreciate the involvement of everyone who took part.

The survey was undertaken by Independent researcher Ruth Stevenson, of Ruthless Research, who was commissioned to design, manage and analyse this survey. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Ruth for all her work on this important survey.