In April 2026, NAVA hosted three online workshops with artists, arts workers and organisations from across the visual arts, craft and design sector to inform submissions to the Federal Government’s consultation on the next National Cultural Policy, which is open until 24 May 2026.
Artbank collection storage facility in Sydney NSW.
This workshop focused on the conditions that support the making and presentation of visual arts, craft and design practice. Discussion covered touring, arts education, regional access, tax reform, arts infrastructure, climate impacts, AI, advocacy and industry standards. The following notes bring together key themes, concerns and recommendations raised during the discussion.
This workshop was facilitated by Imogen Beynon, Director on NAVA's Board, Senior National Industrial Officer at the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and a PhD candidate at RMIT University, with an introduction by Susan Templeman MP, Special Envoy for the Arts.
The following notes bring together key themes, concerns and recommendations raised during the discussion and are intended to support artists, arts workers and organisations preparing submissions to the National Cultural Policy consultation.
Artists and arts workers described ongoing financial instability across all stages of practice. Many spoke about irregular income, unpaid labour, rising costs and the pressure of trying to sustain both creative practice and paid work simultaneously.
Self-represented artists are often required to undertake a portfolio of roles beyond artmaking itself, including administration, marketing, social media, exhibition installation, sales, grant writing, acquittals, contract negotiation, budgeting and advocacy. Much of this work is unpaid, unrecognised and administratively demanding.
Several participants described feeling permanently “on call” in their work, particularly in regional areas where artists and arts workers are expected to maintain community relationships, travel long distances, manage freight, advocate for their sector and remain constantly visible online, often without overtime, time-in-lieu or additional support.
Relationship-building, consultation, networking, cultural advocacy and “thinking time” were repeatedly identified as forms of labour that remain largely unpaid despite being essential to sustaining practice and delivering projects.
Many artists also described feeling pressured to accept unpaid work in order to maintain relationships, secure future opportunities or remain visible within the sector. Volunteering was described as increasingly replacing properly funded arts infrastructure, with some participants questioning where the line sits between genuine mutual exchange and exploitation.
Participants raised concern about tax and welfare systems that penalise artists with fluctuating incomes. One-off grants, prizes or project payments can trigger disproportionate tax liabilities, HECS/HELP repayments or changes to welfare eligibility despite long periods of low earnings.
The growing shortage of affordable artist workspaces needs to be addressed through targeted property and tax reform, including incentives for landlords to lease vacant or underused properties as artist studios, rehearsal spaces and creative workspaces. Participants identified affordable space as a major barrier to sustaining visual arts practice, particularly in metropolitan areas where rising rents and redevelopment are displacing artists and artist-run initiatives. Improved support for residencies, including tax deductions for living costs associated with residencies and research-based practice, was also identified as important for sustaining artistic development and long-term practice.
Fear and confusion around taxation was also identified as a significant issue. Artists described tax compliance as intimidating and difficult to navigate without specialist support, with many relying on informal advice from peers rather than accessible public guidance.
Participants also pointed to JobKeeper as an example of how stable income support allowed artists to continue making work, reduce burnout and plan beyond immediate survival.
There was strong support for reforms including:
Participants described a sector where unpaid and underpaid labour has become normalised across large parts of the visual arts industry.
Artists spoke about unpaid grant writing, committee work, consultation, public programming, mentoring, travel, installation, freight coordination and community engagement becoming expected parts of professional practice. Several participants noted that organisations, local governments and funding bodies frequently rely on artists contributing unpaid labour in order for projects to proceed within existing budgets.
There was concern about inconsistent industrial protections across the sector, including sham contracting, unpaid overtime, lack of time-in-lieu arrangements, superannuation non-compliance and inconsistent application of awards and contracts.
Participants described the visual arts sector as lacking consistent enforcement around wages, entitlements and workplace obligations. Some also raised concern about organisations understating their scale or capacity in order to pay lower artist fees under the NAVA Code of Practice, including council galleries identifying themselves as “micro-organisations” - a category designed for volunteer artist-run initiatives (ARIs) despite operating within larger local government structures.
Consultation and cultural labour were repeatedly identified as areas where artists are expected to contribute expertise without appropriate remuneration. Participants stressed that consultation, relationship-building, advocacy and cultural engagement must be recognised as legitimate forms of labour within funding and contracting structures.
Artists are often unaware they can request superannuation on top of artist fees, while the complexity of current superannuation arrangements is administratively difficult for smaller organisations and sole traders. Superannuation is also frequently treated as expendable when projects are under financial pressure.
Participants called for reform to superannuation legislation to ensure artists are paid superannuation when engaged for their labour, including exhibitions, commissions, workshops, talks, residencies and other professional artistic activity.
There were calls for:
Concern was raised about increasing self-censorship across both artistic practice and programming, with artists and organisations becoming more cautious about presenting politically sensitive, experimental or challenging work.
Some artists described feeling exposed to online harassment, reputational attacks and public scrutiny without clear institutional support or access to legal, communications or wellbeing expertise. It was noted that this burden often falls most heavily on artists from marginalised communities, including artists whose work addresses racism, colonisation, disability, gender or other forms of structural inequality.
Australia lacks clear and consistent legal protections for artistic freedom and freedom of expression, creating uncertainty for artists and organisations navigating controversial work across different jurisdictions and regulatory environments. This was identified as contributing to fear, risk-aversion and reluctance to support challenging artistic practice.
Discussion raised the importance of protecting artistic freedom and civic space, including the role of artists in contributing to public debate, critique and cultural dialogue.
Participants identified the need for:
Participants described arts education as foundational to the long-term sustainability of the visual arts sector.
There was strong concern about the ongoing decline of arts education and training across schools, TAFEs and universities, alongside the closure of Creative Arts programs and increasing barriers to participation. Participants noted that without sustained investment in arts education, the sector risks weakening future pathways into artistic practice, technical work, arts administration and cultural leadership.
Many artists and arts workers also described a lack of accessible education around contracts, taxation, business management, industrial rights and superannuation, leaving practitioners unsure how to advocate for themselves within professional contexts.
Participants stressed that arts education should not be treated as optional, but as essential cultural infrastructure for the future workforce, future audiences and the broader cultural life of the country.
There was support for:
Women continue to make up a significant proportion of the visual arts workforce, yet remain underrepresented in acquisitions, institutional collections, leadership positions and senior decision-making roles.
Participants described ongoing gender inequality across pay, career progression and access to opportunities. Women were also identified as carrying disproportionate levels of unpaid labour within both professional and domestic settings, including administration, care work, volunteer labour and community support roles.
Career interruption associated with parenting and caring responsibilities continues to have long-term impacts on income, visibility and career sustainability. Participants noted that periods away from exhibiting, travelling or networking can significantly affect future opportunities, particularly within competitive funding and commissioning environments that reward continuous visibility and productivity.
There were calls for targeted measures addressing gender inequality across the visual arts sector, including:
Participants described isolation and burnout as widespread across the sector, particularly for independent artists and those working in regional, rural and remote communities.
Many artists spoke about the emotional toll of continually advocating for fair pay, negotiating contracts, managing administrative work and sustaining practice without stable infrastructure or support networks.
For regional artists and arts workers, isolation was often compounded by geography. Participants described significant unpaid labour associated with travel, freight, installation logistics and maintaining professional visibility across large distances. Access to grant opportunities, arts training and peer networks was described as uneven, particularly outside metropolitan centres.
Independent artists also spoke about the psychological impacts of working in isolation, including uncertainty around pricing work, negotiating contracts and navigating industry expectations without access to professional support or shared workspaces.
Participants stressed the importance of local arts infrastructure, including shared studios, community artmaking spaces, council-owned exhibition venues and regional arts organisations. These spaces were described not only as sites of artistic production, but as essential community infrastructure supporting connection, professional development and wellbeing.
It was also noted that local artists are frequently relied upon to deliver community cultural activity without adequate support or remuneration, despite the important social and cultural role this work plays.
Recommendations included:
Participants described AI as both a growing threat and a source of deep uncertainty across the visual arts sector. Artists should not be expected to individually monitor, enforce or litigate against large-scale misuse of their work online.
Artists raised concern about the scraping, reproduction and commercial use of artwork without consent, attribution or payment. Many noted that maintaining an online presence has become professionally necessary, while simultaneously exposing artists to misuse of their work, scams, impersonation and unauthorised reproduction.
Participants also raised concern about the impact of AI on arts education and training, particularly where students are increasingly directed toward automated tools rather than specialist teaching, studio-based learning and professional mentorship.
Social media platforms were described as increasingly hostile and unstable environments for artists attempting to build sustainable audiences and income streams. Participants reported ongoing experiences of account cloning, scam activity, bot harassment and online abuse, particularly during exhibition periods or moments of increased visibility.
There was strong support for:
Artists are already responding to climate change through community engagement, storytelling, disaster recovery and place-based cultural practice.
Concern was raised about the growing physical impacts of climate change on cultural infrastructure, including damage to studios, collections, archives and community spaces.
Artists spoke about the role of culture in helping communities process grief, uncertainty and environmental change, particularly following floods, fires and other climate-related disasters. First Nations artists were identified as playing a particularly important role in maintaining and sharing cultural knowledge connected to Country, care and adaptation.
There was strong support for formally recognising arts and culture as essential climate infrastructure within the National Cultural Policy. Artists are already undertaking significant climate-related work without adequate long-term support or coordination.
Climate policy should not treat arts and culture as peripheral to climate response. Arts organisations, community spaces and cultural networks were described as important sites of social connection, communication and recovery during times of crisis.
Recommendations include:
Participants described current funding systems as fragmented, competitive and administratively burdensome, with short-term project funding models contributing to ongoing precarity for both artists and organisations.
Discrepancies between Federal, State and local government funding models were described as creating unnecessary complexity, duplicated reporting and inconsistent expectations across the sector.
Participants noted that many funding programs rely on artists contributing unpaid labour in order for projects to remain financially viable. This included unpaid public programming, workshops, talks, consultation, research and project development work.
Many artists also described funding structures as poorly aligned with the realities of artistic practice. Research and development, community engagement, process-based work and long-term relationship-building often fall outside standard funding criteria despite being central to how many artists work.
Participants raised concern that grant programs frequently exclude core operational costs, wages and commercial activity associated with sustaining practice, limiting the long-term viability of both artists and small organisations.
Participants also stressed that publicly funded activity should not rely on unpaid labour in order to function.
There were calls for:
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