The Art Worker 016
10/19/26
CAL IRL @ ICA LA Thursday October 26 5-7PM
CAL and ICA LA have renewed our partnership for another six months! We look forward to seeing you at our next monthly gathering: October 26, 5-7pm. We’ll have drinks and snacks from Pizzaninsta! and a brief teach-in on the 7 Cooperative Principles from CAL co-founder Debra Scacco at 5:15pm. Read on below for an introduction to the teach-in materials. The galleries will be open until 7pm, and admission to ICA LA is always free.
RSVP to help us make sure we have enough pizza :) 🍕🍕🍕
About CAL IRL @ ICA LA: This event is a monthly informal gathering for art workers to get together, talk openly about the opportunities and challenges we face in our life’s work, and dream CAL’s long term goal of offering professional support, community services, and advocacy opportunities in a cooperatively owned community center into reality.
Contemporary Art League x The Artist’s Contract
Last month, we announced that Contemporary Art League has partnered with The Artist’s Contract to provide free, adaptable online contract templates to the community.
Co-founded by attorney Susan Schwartz and artist Virginia Broersma, The Artist’s Contract is part of a larger movement to establish fairness and equity within the art world. The Artist’s Contract website is a hub for free legal contracts for visual artists. Based on the co-founders’ extensive research and community conversations, the FARE (Fair Artists’ Reserved Equity) Contract was launched in 2021 as a new model for past efforts in this area, such as the Projansky Deal, and in conversation with more recent work such as the Ross-Sutton Agreement. The FARE Contract is free to use and is adaptable, allowing each user to determine which terms are important to them and preserving their ability to negotiate according to their interests. Since creating the FARE Contract, The Artist’s Contract has added two more templates to the website: a Cease and Desist Letter, and a Commission Agreement. Next up: a consignment agreement template that will be launched in the coming months.
To learn more and to get started with the FARE Contract,visit our website.
Introduction to the 7 Cooperative Principles
By Corrina Peipon
Contemporary Art League (CAL) is a trade organization with a mission to build unity, solidarity, and equity among art workers in Los Angeles County. We are a unique (though far from solitary) effort to create a member association where art workers from all sectors of the regional contemporary art field and at all stages of their careers participate in mutual uplift.
When we founded CAL, co-founder Debra Scacco and I searched for a structure for the organization. We knew that unity, equity, and solidarity were a triumvirate of philosophical concepts toward which the organization would continually strive and a set of core values that would guide our work. What kind of structure, then, would allow the most room for the exploration and realization of these philosophical concepts? And what structure would be most aligned with these core values?
We learned about the 7 Cooperative Principles, from the International Cooperative Alliance:
1. Voluntary and Open Membership
2. Democratic Member Control
3. Member Economic Participation
4. Autonomy and Independence
5. Education, Training, and Information
6. Cooperation among Cooperatives
7. Concern for Community
This list of organizing tenets rang true to us. To achieve unity, we’d need a democratic decision-making process; transparency; and community spirit. To achieve solidarity, we would also need autonomy. And to achieve equity in the contemporary art field, we’d also need to have open membership and provide access to training and information. Rather than rely on a board for governance and funding from sources outside of the organization, we were inspired by the idea that member control and economic participation from members would naturally yield a solidarity economy amid the microcosm of the CAL community.
And so, we structured CAL as a cooperative.
We’re learning more every day about the history, present, and future of cooperatives as we inch toward our governance, membership, and business models. At October’s teach-in at CAL IRL @ ICA LA on the 26th, Debra will do a brief teach-in about the 7 Cooperative Principles, which are guidelines we’re using to shape CAL.
Please join us to learn more and discuss the cooperative structure!
RSVP here to let us know you’re coming.
And if you’d like to learn a bit more about cooperatives and the 7 Cooperative Priniciples in advance of the teach-in and discussion, here are a few resources:
The International Cooperative Alliance’s Guidance Notes on Cooperative Principles
How can I get involved with Contemporary Art League?
Join us
Come visit, share ideas and get inspired at CAL IRL @ ICA LA. Our next meet up is on Thursday October 26, 5pm - 7pm at ICA LA.Use The Artist’s Contract free online templates
Spread the word
Forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues.Volunteer
Working group meetings take place the second Tuesday of every month at 1pm via zoom. Email us to join.Introduce us
Do you have a formal (gallery, museum, art advocacy organization) or informal (crit group, studio mates) group you’d like to connect with CAL? Let us know.Fund us
We need funds to grow and build CAL with our community. Click “donate” below or on our website to make a tax deductible donation through our fiscal sponsorship with Fractured Atlas.