Guide to different scales of arts-climate projects
This guide summarises different ways you can work with artists on climate change and what is possible given the different budgets that might be available. Artist projects are, by their nature, highly variable. Indeed, this is part of their appeal. So, the types of projects shown and costs given are indicative and derived from our experience. There are other models for working with artists not covered by this guide.
Pay rates
For most artist-led projects, the main cost is for the artist’s time. We recommend this is paid at Scottish Artist Union (SAU) rates, which are revised annually. We use their rate for an artist with 5+ years’ experience unless the role is explicitly defined as appropriate for an early-career artist. For shorter term work, we use the hourly and day rates. For roles of more than 20 days we sometimes use their residency rates, calculated as a proportion of the annual rate.
For longer-term residencies and embedded artist projects, we recommend paying the artist a salary for a fixed period instead, which could be full time or, more often, based on increments like 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 FTE (full time equivalent). Artists often work on multiple projects at once, so most roles tend to be part-time rather than full-time. However, an artist might appreciate the stability of a full-time role if there is budget available. For salaried roles, we recommend paying artists with 5+ years’ experience at a ‘manager’ rate or equivalent, artists with 3+ years’ experience at an ‘officer’ rate, and new graduate artists at an entry-level salary for your organisation.
We recommend paying artists for time to attend meetings, planning, communications and admin as well as time spent on creative activities. The fee covers all the work they need to do to fulfil the requirements of the job. The best practice is to pay artists for travel costs and other expenses on top of their fee. For longer-term projects, we also recommend giving artists a materials budget that they can spend themselves and claim back. This gives them greater flexibility and saves on administrative time. It is normal to assume that artists will use some of their own resources such as studio space or IT equipment/software and SAU rates are designed to account for this. Some artists may also require additional funds to cover their access needs, such as paying for a support worker or travel by taxi.
Project or activity types
Image adapted from photograph by Jennie Razumnaya on Canva.
The costs given below assume a host organisation that employs staff and has sufficient budget to pay an artist proper fees, given below at 2025 SAU rates. Some artists are willing to charge lower rates or volunteer some time for volunteer-led organisations or others with only a very limited budget. This shouldn’t be assumed but needs to be arranged on a case-by-case basis. In general, in situations with limited funding, it is best to be open about available funding from the start and negotiate with the artist for a fee based on that.
We suggest that, based on your available budget, there is a sliding scale of types of artist activity available. These range from one-off interventions to long-term projects:
- £200-£500: One-off artist workshop, with limited preparation time.
- £400-£1000: Producing simple creative work with participants during a single session, with preparation time and follow up, eg paintings.
- £1500-£5000: Producing more complex or elaborate creative work with participants over multiple sessions, eg a short film.
- £4000-£20000: Commissioning an artist to produce a high-quality piece of creative work over an extended period, with or without other participants.
- £4000-£40000: Running an artist residency, usually resulting in new creative work.
- £6000+: Running a creative outreach project over an extended period.
- £6000+: Running an embedded artist project.
One-off workshop
Getting an artist to deliver a bespoke two-hour workshop for staff/volunteers/participants exploring climate change issues relevant to you, using simple creative means like writing, movement, role play, collage etc.
Indicative costs
- Artist fee of two x four-hour sessional rates (to attend and run the workshop plus four hours’ preparation time): £359.20 for an artist with 5+ years’ experience, £290.40 for an artist with 3+ years’ experience.
- Materials: £20~
- Travel costs: Cover travel for the artist to attend, if applicable.
- Venue hire: £0, assuming a simple workshop could probably be held in your own venue/office.
- Access budget: As needed.
Benefits
- Getting a new perspective on issues.
- Inspiration.
- Developing shared understanding and address disagreements.
Example: Session at Culture for Climate Scotland’s strategy week 2020
We hired artist Lou Brodie to run an online session as part of a week-long process of working on our organisational strategy. The artist designed and delivered a session aimed to loosen people up and get them to think in creative ways, which was particularly important given that the whole week had to take place online due to COVID.
Co-creating artistic work: single session
Getting an artist to work with a group on producing creative work over a short period. At its simplest this could be a single session getting people to share their sustainability ideas through a creative method like drawing, storytelling, zine making or poetry. Examples of this have included getting people to spend a session designing their ‘dream bus ticket’ or creating origami boats that documented their hopes and fears for the local marine environment.
Indicative costs
- Artist fee for 1.5 days (including half-day rate for the two-hour workshop and a day rate for planning time in advance and time after the event to bring together creative work): £538.80 for an artist with 5+ years’ experience, £435.60 for an artist with 3+ years’ experience.
- Materials: £80~ depending on the form of creative work.
- Travel costs: Cover travel for the artist to attend, if applicable.
- Venue hire: Variable depending on what space you have access to and number of attendees.
- Access budget: As needed.
Benefits
- New ways to present perspectives on climate change.
- Permanent creative outputs that can be kept and reused.
- Activity that encourages reflection and discussion.
- Developing shared understanding and movement building through collective activity.
Example: MANIFESTOS from times of CRISIS at Green Tease
Artist Rosanna Irvine brought her design for MANIFESTOS from times of CRISIS, a participatory public artwork, to Green Tease events over three consecutive days in July 2020. She facilitated participants to create their own manifestos about the climate crisis. This involved leading people through a particular process to take a long-term view and come up with unusual ideas. The manifestos were later printed and displayed in Glasgow.
Co-creating artistic work: multiple sessions
Longer-term projects might work with participants over a few sessions to develop deeper understanding and produce a creative output that shares their perspectives, such as a short film, mural or comic strip. Examples of this have included a film about Glasgow cycling charity Bike for Good and a ‘newspaper’ with the community’s vision of a climate-ready future for their area.
Minimum viable costs
- Artist fee for five days (includes designing and running three sessions, time to bring together/design/edit creative outputs): £1796 for an artist with 5+ years’ experience, £1452 for 3+ years.
- Materials: ~£200 (this will vary widely depending on type of creative output and resources available already).
- Travel: Cover artist travel, if applicable.
- Venue hire: If needed.
- Access budget: As needed.
Benefits
- Creative outputs engage more deeply with perspectives of participants.
- Developing creative work provides opportunities for participants to reflect and better understand their feelings.
- Higher-quality creative outputs that may be more suitable for sharing.
Example: The Burnie Journey: Taking Creative Approaches to Flood Awareness
As part of the research project, artist Simon Gall worked with SEPA and Culture for Climate Scotland to run three sessions with pupils at Fernielea Primary School in the Den Burn Valley in Aberdeen, an area increasingly prone to flooding. He ran workshops to improve understanding of flood risks and worked with the pupils to create songs about what to do in the event of a flood, which were then recorded (video 2:41 minutes).
Artist commissions
This involves hiring an artist to produce professional standard creative outputs, which requires more time and, potentially, resources. This might include time to work with participants or a process of individual research on the part of the artist.
Note that creative work produced as part of commissions remains the intellectual property of the artist. It would be normal for the agreement with the artist to allow for the work to be licensed for use by your organisation for a long period (e.g. 10 years) and for the artist to be credited when the work is shared.
Minimum viable costs
- Artist fee for 10 days (including research time, time to attend meetings, time to produce creative work): £3592 for an artist with 5+ years’ experience, £2904 for 3+ years, £2264 for new graduate artist.
- Materials: ~£500
- Travel: Cover any necessary artist travel. Working at this scale, you are more likely to need multiple in-person meetings, so travel costs will be higher.
- Venue hire: It is normal to provide access to some sort of studio space if the artist needs it and does not have access to their own. If an artist has their own space, it is not normally required to cover costs associated with this as it is accounted for in SAU rates.
- Access budget: As needed.
Benefits
- High-quality artistic work that is available for you to continue using and sharing.
- Opportunities to engage staff and audiences in new ways.
- A new creative perspective on your organisation.
Example: Weathering Earth
The Midlothian Climate Beacon worked with artist Nicole Manley to produce a large-scale installation of clay sculpture. Nicole ran sessions with members of the public getting them to produce their own small clay sculptures, then produced her own larger work and developed a display at the National Mining Museum that brought all these elements together.
Artist residencies
An artist spends time in your organisation, talking to people and learning about what you do, and would then normally use this as the impetus to produce creative work in response. Residencies are often more popular methods for involving artists at an earlier stage in their career.
The length of residencies can vary greatly, from a single week to multiple years, so there tends to be a great range of potential outputs from this kind of role. A short residency allows an artist to briefly ‘disrupt’ normal working patterns by bringing in a different perspective and then producing a short piece of creative work in response, which might be a draft or sketch for a larger concept. A longer residency allows an artist to really get to know your organisation and produce creative work that responds closely to the needs and interests of staff and/or your audiences.
Minimum viable costs
- Artist fee for 20 days (including time to get to know the organisation and meet staff, research, time to develop creative work): £3840 for an artist with 5+ years’ experience, £2757 for new graduate artist. These are based on SAU annual residency rates adjusted to match the number of days. Note that residency rates should only be used for engagements of 20 days or more, so if a residency is any shorter than this, it should be paid using the SAU day rate.
- Materials: £500~ depending on the kind of work the artist will be doing. This should increase in line with the number of days the artist is working.
- Travel: Cover any necessary artist travel, such as to attend meetings.
- Venue hire: It is normal to provide access to some sort of studio space if the artist needs it and does not have access to their own. If an artist has their own space, it is not normally required to cover costs associated with this.
- Access budget: As needed.
For longer projects, if the artist is working more than a day a week for a period of a year of more, or two days a week for a period of six months or more, consider employing them in a salaried role instead.
Benefits
- Developing a relationship with an artist.
- Engaging staff in creative discussion and break out of normal working patterns.
- Bringing in new ideas for how your organisation could do things differently.
- Producing new creative work of varying scales.
Example: Frances Davis residency at the James Hutton Institute
Artist Frances Davis had a week-long residency at land and farming research organisation, the James Hutton Institute. She worked with members of staff to understand how creative methods might make a difference to their work and produced a set of recommendations for how arts and culture might be more integrated into the organisation.
Visit Frances Davis’ profile on The University of Edinburgh website
Artist outreach project
Bringing in an artist to run a range of creative activities to meaningfully and deeply engage participants in thinking around climate change, understand their perspectives, encourage action and offer insights on how they can be supported by decision makers.
Outreach projects can take a range of forms. They might involve running a series of events out of a venue with different audiences attending each one, going out and running a creative workshop in multiple locations, or working with a specific group over an extended period. Projects of this kind can be focused on education and encouraging people to act or providing a platform for people to influence climate action in their area. Examples have included running a mapping workshop where people shared stories of how climate change was affecting their area, working with a youth theatre group to create a performance about climate change and running activities to get people to consider the benefits of sustainable transport.
Minimum viable costs
- Artist fee for 15 days: £5250 for an artist with 5+ years’ experience, £4245 for 3+ years’ experience.
- Materials: £500~ depending on the kind of work the artist will be doing. This should increase in line with the number of days the artist is working.
- Travel: Cover all necessary travel to run workshops, attend meetings etc.
- Venue hire: As needed.
- Catering: Often considered good practice to provide some catering for community outreach projects.
- Access budget: As needed.
For longer projects, if the artist is working more than a day a week for a period of a year of more, or two days a week for a period of six months or more, consider employing them in a salaried role instead.
Benefits
- Engaging communities in creative, fun and meaningful ways that are designed specifically to match your aims.
- Getting feedback and input from communities through creative methods.
- Creative work that documents community perspectives.
Example: Transforming Audience Travel Through Art
Artist Helen McCrorie worked with audiences at Perth Theatre and Concert Hall over nine months to understand their perspectives on sustainable travel, what barriers existed currently and what actions should be taken to address them. She used creative methods including mapping, drawing, printing, textiles and film to get input from participants. This creative work was then shared back with audience members, staff at the theatre and concert hall, and local decision makers.
Embedded artist project
This involves bringing in an artist to work within your organisation as a member of staff for an extended period or even permanently. The artist will bring their creative skills to bear on your work, contributing to decision making, running workshops and activities for members of staff, and producing creative work as relevant. Embedded artist projects tend to be more open-ended, designed to respond to changing circumstances as they arise. It can be designed to fit with a particular project you are running, or it might be focused on the organisation itself. Usually, embedded artist projects are best suited to more experienced artists.
Note that embedded artist projects tend to differ from residencies in that they are more about the process of collaboration, and involving an artist as a core member of the team as part of decision making and management. Embedded artist projects can involve producing new creative work, but it is perfectly possible to run a highly successful embedded artist project without this.
Minimum viable costs
- Artist fee for 25 days: £8750 for an artist with 5+ years’ experience (we advise only working with more experienced artists on projects like this).
- Materials: ~£250, if the focus is less on producing creative work.
- Travel: Any necessary travel for site visits, meetings etc.
- Ideas fund: Embedded artist projects are open-ended, so it’s useful to have a specific budget that can be applied to ideas that come up during the collaboration process.
- Access budget: As needed.
For longer projects, if the artist is working more than a day a week for a period of a year of more, or two days a week for a period of six months or more, consider employing them in a salaried role instead.
Benefits
- Deep collaboration with an artist to transform your organisation’s thinking and approach.
- Developing innovative new ideas that the artist can apply.
- Time for an artist to fully commit themselves to your organisation.
- Opportunity to develop a deep and permanent relationship with an artist,
Example: Crichton Carbon Centre embedded artist
Artist Kerry Morrison is employed as a part-time member of staff at environmental not-for-profit Crichton Carbon Centre. She brings her creative skill set to bear on all aspects of the organisation as relevant, including contributing to strategic decisions and outreach to the varied organisations they work with.
Further information
Artist recruitment
Recruitment methods vary for differing scales of project. For more extended roles we always recommend running an open recruitment process as you do for any salaried role, creating a job specification and a list of requirements, getting artists to apply then interviewing shortlisted candidates. We recommend accepting applications in multiple formats, such as in writing and as a video/sound recording.
Calls for artists can be circulated through various channels including Culture for Climate Scotland’s website and newsletter, Creative Scotland’s opportunities listings, and local artist networks such as Creative Edinburgh/Glasgow/Dundee, CHARTS and CABN. For shorter roles, it may be more appropriate to approach a potential candidate directly.
Culture for Climate Scotland may be able to recommend artists in your area and we have an artist roster available on request so do get in touch with us.
Artist contracts
For job security, we recommend always providing artists with a contract or agreement detailing the job requirements, fee and procedures for dealing with any issues that may arise. Again, this should be commensurate with the scale of the role. For a short engagement, a simple one-page agreement of the job and fee will suffice. A longer role should have a full job contract, equivalent to what you would provide for other members of staff.
Culture for Climate Scotland have an example agreement and contract available on request.
Support systems for artists
Artist roles can be isolating and it may be tricky for freelance artists to make themselves heard when working alongside people in permanent salaried roles. The best practice is to identify a member of staff as the go-to person to support an artist. This staff member can hold regular check-ins with the artist if working on a longer project and can be available for the artist to contact if any issues do arise. Having a detailed contract or agreement also helps ensure an artist is clear about their rights and responsibilities. See our culture/SHIFT methodology for more information on our approach to running arts-climate projects.
For more information, please contact Lewis Coenen-Rowe, culture/SHIFT Manager: [email protected].