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The average excuses...
iLLUSEUM-giftshop

iLLUSEUM: SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET !

Originally, our project was to be supported by the iLLUSEUM who asked for our proposal, recieved funding for it through their town council in the Baarsjes (Amsterdam). What started as a weekend workshop with some personal work exhibited too became a month long workshop open 7 days a week with simultaneous duties in several locations, and 3 months of preparations, website design, fixing computers, and making tv commercials and a documentary for the festival...all for the same budget. When our flagship workshop was completed, the gallery decided to keep more than 2000 euros of the promised support for themselves to extend our workshops after we returned to Paris. This meant, in effect, we worked for less than 4 euros a day for 4 months!

Since we also suffered theft and damage to some of our equipment which was not insured by the gallery although that too was promised, HOLDING BACK OUR PAY to redistribute to others was a terrible reward.

When you are an independent artist working on a project funded from one organization, to another group, and then to you, be careful. The main organization has no responsibility to you, there is often no accountability. In our case, the main town council seemed very fair and decent people, but we had very lettle contact with them. They made a good first impression, they helped us feel safe making a commitment, then they disappeared.

In the end, it was not about the quantity or quality of the work. The gallery would always want a bigger budget to do more for longer. The most convienient for them was to take our budget and then make excuses.

Throughout the project, we had almost no contact with the main group, the happy town council, but even when we eventually talked with them, they said that since they got what they wanted, how they got it was "not their business". 

I would suggest to avoid this trap, present a written budget and proposal to a responsible person from both (all) organizations your project is serving so that one group can not create false demands based on an unseen third party.  In our case, the iLLUSEUM accepted our proposal, then after we had already worked for 2 months they changed the demands and blamed it on the unseen town council.

To what extent the manipulation we experienced was planned from the start  I am not sure, but I hope this story helps somebody to avoid this trap in the future.

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It's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!

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  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault!  No, it's his fault! No, it's his fault! Hey, wait a minute, what's the problem?
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Use this link if you would like to send your thoughts to the iLLUSEUM.
Ironically, the iLLUSEUM is selling this book in their giftshop,
"WHY ARE ARTISTS POOR?" Here is one possible answer...