Terms of Engagement with Make or Break: an artist-led approach to working with museums, galleries, biennials, fairs, and festivals.

This event is free for Artist Pass holders!

Image: Make or Break at Helsinki International Artist Programme, 2023. Photo by Daniel McCready.

When artists work with institutions, complicated and unequal power dynamics often come into play. Typically, artists are given contracts that outline the presenting partner's terms and expectations. But what if artists were empowered to communicate their own values, needs, and requests? Could this lead to more equitable and positive working relationships?

Make or Break will guide you through their Terms of Engagement—an open-source document that outlines values, expectations, and desirable working conditions from an artist's perspective—and help you develop your own. It’s similar to a band’s rider, but instead of listing preferred snacks, you get to define your ethical non-negotiables.

Who is this session for:

This session is for practicing artists who work (or intend to) with galleries and other institutions (e.g. museums, festivals, biennales), and who want to enter into these relationships with more confidence and autonomy, and with tools for communicating your values and needs. The workshop facilitators are visual artists, but the session may also be useful for other kinds of creative practitioners.

Learning outcomes:

• Learn what a Terms of Engagement document is, and how it is useful for artists and other creative practitioners
• Define your own values, needs, and non-negotiables in relation to how you want to operate professionally
• Develop your own Terms of Engagement that you can use in developing positive professional relationships

About the Artist:

Make or Break devise and experiment with process-based projects that are co-authored with communities we are invited into. These have included creating experimental economies and temporary currencies; caring for civic spaces and the ‘non-human’; celebrating the labour of strangers; prototyping for future worlds; writing speculative fiction and facilitating conversations as collective research.

Make or Break is Bec Gallo (they/them) and Connie Anthes (she/her), who work and live on the stolen lands of the Gadigal and Bidjigal people in Sydney, Australia. 

Image:  Bec Gallo (they/them) and Connie Anthes

Make or Break Website

Make or Break Instagram

Participant Requirements:

Materials to bring:

• Laptop and charger if possible

• Notebook and pen

ACCESS REQUIREMENTS 

If you have access requirements, please tick the access requirements box during the booking process. This includes booking companion card tickets. A Brand X team member will then be in touch to ensure we understand your requirements. If you require an interpreter, or would like to contact someone about access, please email Dean Nash (Access Coordinator) at access@brandx.org.au

HOW TO GET THERE

• Train: Town Hall Station 2-minute walk.
• Light Rail: 2-5 minute walk from light rail platforms
• Bus: 5 minute walk from Elizabeth Street, Stand C and D
• Car: Wilson Parking, 14 Wilmot St, Sydney or Meriton Suite Parking, 100 Bathurst St, Sydney.
  
  

REGISTER FOR A BUILDING TOUR

We would love to show you around the City of Sydney Creative Studios. Email programs@brandx.org to organise a 30 minute tour before the session starts, we'll show you our Performance, Music, Digital and Visual arts spaces.

EXCHANGES AND REFUNDS

Want to cancel your ticket? Please email us at programs@brandx.org.au. If you purchased a ticket, we can refund your tickets minus transaction fees of 1.75% + 30c. Please cancel/refund your ticket no less than 24 hours prior to workshop commencement. 

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body, and the City of Sydney.