Throughout the past year, Canadian Artists’ Representation/le Front des artistes canadiens (CARFAC) and le Regroupement des artistes en arts visuals (RAAV) have held meetings with the Canadian Art Museum Directors’ Organization (CAMDO) and the Canadian Museums Association (CMA) to discuss a fair level of payment for artist fees. The meetings began in 2004, when CARFAC released its new formula for the CARFAC Minimum Fee Schedule. The fees primarily refer to royalties that are paid by museums to publicly present an artist’s work, and are paid in recognition of the artist’s copyright ownership of their works.
The meetings have been arduous up to this point, and all parties hope to resolve their issues and find solutions in the near future so that we may begin to build a stronger visual arts community. As such, CARFAC-RAAV and CAMDO-CMA have jointly agreed to undertake a mediation process in order to work towards establishing an acceptable fee schedule agreeable to both parties. In order to improve the situation of the visual arts in Canada, it is agreed that it is in the interests of all parties to work together on a solution. Once an agreement on the new fee schedule is reached, both parties agree to work at securing an official ratification by their Boards and, following this, to officially recommend its adoption by their members. Following this, the target date for an announcement will coincide with the Visual Arts Summit, to be held November 25-27th, 2007.