Artists fight to preserve royalty scheme

Members of Australia's art community have gathered at Boomalli Aboriginal Arts Cooperative to show their support for a royalty scheme aimed at helping artists
 collect ongoing profits from the resale of their works.

By

Tara Callinan

Source

NITV News

One hundred artists are showing their support for the Resale Royalty scheme, first introduced three

 years ago, by participating in the Rightnow Exhibition at Sydney’s Boomalli Aboriginal Arts Cooperative.

A final report on last year's review of the Resale Royalty scheme is yet to be released, prompting

 fears the popular scheme could be dropped.

"Each time the work is sold they are going to get five per cent of the selling price and 

hopefully that will add up," says Robyn Ayres, Executive Director at the Arts Law Centre

 of Australia.

Ms Ayres says over half of the artists already benefiting from the scheme are of Aboriginal or 

Torres Strait islander descent.

"The total number who have benefited is over 800, about 850, and about 65 per cent of those are

 Indigenous artists so that's probably about 500 Indigenous artists who have already received a 

payment under the resale royalty scheme," she says.

One criticism of the scheme is that it will not cater for remote artists selling works for less than
$1,000.

"The entitlement begins from artworks sold at the value of one thousand dollars and
 over, of course we know that a lot of community based artists might not sell artworks 
for over one thousand dollars," says Ms Ayres.

Artist Adam Hill says this commodification of art is detracting from its cultural value.

"My problem with that is placing too much of a commodity on art rather than an
 appreciation of art for its aesthetic value," he says.

"We need to ensure that there is some kind of, shall we say, sub-scheme set up within 
this one that creates a kitty to support the grassroots artists and hopefully get those guys
 off the ground and move them into what is categorically what this scheme is about."

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/04/10/artists-fight-preserve-royalty-scheme