{"id":226721,"date":"2025-10-20T11:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T11:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/226721\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T11:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T11:09:07","slug":"its-a-bit-clandestine-a-bit-punk-the-guerrilla-scheme-letting-skint-artists-mass-share-gallery-membership-cards-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/226721\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s a bit clandestine, a bit punk\u2019: the guerrilla scheme letting skint artists mass-share gallery membership cards | Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a railing, not far from Tate Modern<\/a>, is a lockbox. Enter a code and inside is a membership card to the museum, enabling free access to its temporary exhibitions. You get your ticket, you return the card.<\/p>\n

The Artist Membership Project, much to the ire of the city\u2019s arts institutions, has been operating for three months with more than 600 members, mostly artists and recent graduates. Curator Ben Broome, who describes the guerrilla initiative as \u201cpart mutual aid project, part artwork\u201d, estimates that those signed up have saved thousands of pounds in museum entry fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI work in the art world, I can generally beg, borrow, and steal a pass, or I know someone who works at the museum,\u201d Broome says. \u201cBut I did a studio visit with an artist who had recently graduated and is still finding her footing in the industry and I asked if she had seen the Ed Atkins show at Tate Britain<\/a>. She replied that she\u2019d have loved to have gone but it cost \u00a318 and simply couldn\u2019t afford that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 2024 study found that the median annual salary of artists in the UK was just \u00a312,500 a year, a 40% decrease since 2010.<\/p>\n

Broome went away from the studio visit with a plan forming. He would email a dozen friends who run commercial art galleries and ask them to donate \u00a3100. He would then invest the money in membership cards to nine institutions, including the Tates Modern and Britain, the Courtauld Gallery, the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery<\/a>. These would be hidden in lockboxes, the location and code to which are provided over a WhatsApp group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit clandestine, it\u2019s a little bit punk. There\u2019s a sprinkling of low-level anarchy to the project,\u201d Broome says. \u201cThat\u2019s why people have responded so well to it, because it does feel somewhat divisive or uncouth. And I think we need a bit of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Provocation \u2026 another Artist Membership Project card is shared. Photograph: Jay Izzard<\/p>\n

Broome adds: \u201cI understand why these institutions have to charge for these shows, they cost thousands to stage. I just think that the act of charging artists is alienating the very audience that makes these institutions great in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The curator cites the example of MoMA in New York, which offers a heavily subsidised artists\u2019 membership scheme. Artists simply have to show some evidence of their practice at the museum\u2019s information desk, be it a website or their social media.<\/p>\n

There seems an appetite for a similar concessionary rate in the UK, as within days the WhatsApp group had blown up and the cards were being used several times a day. A spokesperson for Tate said: \u201cUnlike many museums abroad, the UK\u2019s national museums are free to all, including to artists \u2026 This is only possible because of the support of our members and the income generated by our exhibitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representatives of the Royal Academy and the V&A also noted that temporary shows were a major source of income. The terms and conditions of all the membership programmes involuntarily included in Broome\u2019s scheme expressly forbid the sharing of cards. All the institutions pointed out they operate free entry days, occasional pay-what-you-can events and reduced prices for under-25s or those on benefits.<\/p>\n

Broome says he understands the financial constraints on museums and that they do what they can. \u201cBeing the director of a major museum in London is no easy task, but I think we can separate the dire situation of the public-sector art world and the fact that artists can\u2019t afford to see exhibitions. They are intertwined, both of these things are rooted in governmental failures. That being said, the audience who are using the membership scheme, they\u2019re just not coming to your institution anyway. So it\u2019s better to get those people through the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Visitor numbers across London\u2019s arts institutions have barely recovered since the Covid-19 pandemic, with footfall across the Tate sites down by over 30% since 2019.<\/p>\n

Some of the cards have got so soggy from being out in the elements that they\u2019re practically unusable<\/p>\n

There are signs that Broome\u2019s provocation is bearing fruit. Gilane Tawadros, director of the Whitechapel Gallery<\/a> in London told the Guardian: \u201cI wasn\u2019t personally aware of this scheme, but many of our staff are also practising artists, so I would imagine they are. I fully understand the need for artists to share resources as ticket prices for exhibitions are often prohibitively expensive and being able to go and see work is vital. I think it would be great for arts institutions to consider as many ways as possible to support and nurture our artist communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this month the Barbican<\/a> cancelled Broome\u2019s membership card, citing \u201csuspicious activity\u201d. He crowdfunded for a replacement under a new name which was promptly also cancelled. Now however a spokesperson says the gallery will reach out to him to \u201cexplore options\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea behind this project was not to create an infrastructure from which people could access free exhibitions indefinitely,\u201d the curator says. \u201cIt was always destined to fail in that. Some of the cards have got so soggy from being out in the elements that they\u2019re practically unusable, one of the lockboxes has seized up. It was designed to show the precarity of artists and that there is a need for an alternative model \u2013 which I think it has done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a railing, not far from Tate Modern, is a lockbox. Enter a code and inside is a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-226721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}