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Strategic Goals of IAA Europe 2025–2026

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The International Association of Art (IAA) Europe is a network of about 40 national member organizations within Europe, representing professional visual artists.

IAA Europe is one of the five cultural regions (Africa, Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe) of the International Association of Art (IAA), the largest international non-governmental association of visual artists, with more than 100 member organizations worldwide. The IAA supports international cooperation free from any aesthetic, political or other bias and aims to improve the economic and social position of artists on national and international level. It strives to facilitate the creation of visual artworks in a spirit of universal humanism in communities throughout the world.

Art is a basic human right and one of the essential services that the society must provide to its citizens. Art is a form and platform of critical discussion that maintains and improves democracy. According to many scientific studies art also builds communities, increases tolerance and improves the health and well-being.1

IAA Europe believes that art has a central and overarching role in society, and that all citizens should have the opportunity to experience art and that they are to be able to practice as a professional artist regardless of place of residence, social and economic background.

IAA Europe urges the decision makers to develop the visual arts by:

1. PROVIDING EQUAL RIGHTS

A flourishing art field requires diversity. We need to ensure equal access to resources for all artists and ensure that artists are prescribed the same rights as in other professions.

We want:

  • Equal and equitable opportunities for arts practice and participation for artists of intersecting identities.
  • Afirmative action to be promoted and implemented by institutions, organisations and funders to futher include those who have been marginalized and underserved.
  • Equal accrual of social benefits, health benefits, insurance and pensions, regardless of whether you are an employee, freelancer or self-employed person.
  • Funding and legal conditions that promote and ensure diversity within the artworld, where freedom of expression is safeguarded, regardless of geography, ethnicity, age and gender and where existing gaps are actively diminished.

2. STRENGTHENING WORKING CONDITIONS AND A FAIR PAYMENT FOR ARTISTIC PRACTICES

The arts require professional artists who can live by what they create and who can work freely. Remunerating visual artists – just as others are being paid for their work in the arts and in all other economic fields – and reducing barriers to mobility is an investment into the future of our societies, and into the social, cultural and economic development of countries.

We want:

  • An increase in scholarships and grants, because they are important for ensuringinnovation, freedom of expression and democratic participation in the artistic profession and contributes to a rich and diverse arts and cultural offering. Grants are the most cost-efficient way of funding the arts.
  • Grant and scholarship systems in the arts to be based on peer-review, as is the norm in science. Peer-review system — with regular rotation of the peers — is best way to secure high quality and diversity in the judging contemporary artworks and art practices.
  • Grant and scholarship systems to promote equity and equality within artists.
  • Implementing inclusive policies in grant and scholarships to provide
  • Easy mobility for art and artists between borders; consolidating existing mobilityfunding programs and information points and reducing mobility obstacles allowingeasier access to visas.
  • Visual artists to receive fair remuneration for exhibiting their work in publicly fundedexhibition spaces (with a corresponding increase in budgets to publicly-fundedexhibiting institutions).
  • Structural change in how the museums and equivalent exhibition spaces are run andhow they spend their budgets. Artists should have more say in what is exhibited andartists should be paid better for their work in and for the museums.2
  • Fair remuneration to mean both an Exhibition Participation Fee as compensation tovisual artists for the work and administration invested in creating content for exhibitions, as well as an Exhibition Rights Remuneration for the display of artworks in the artist’s possession, while the artist is not able to dispose of the artwork during the exhibition period – be it through copyright or soft law agreements.
  • The right to collective bargaining strengthened and the inclusion of artists’ associations, Arts Councils and/or collecting societies in the decision processes that are relevant for artistic income.3
  • Jobs for visual artists in, for example, art museums. Art museums are some of the most well-funded organisations within the field of visual arts, yet the amount of funding channeled into creation and production of art is considerably small. Museums have the potential to provide salaried positions for artists by offering employment contracts that allow them to create new works for upcoming exhibitions.
  • Copyright laws to protect the material and intellectual rights of artists.
  • Visual artists to receive fair remuneration also for the digital distribution and sharingof their works.

3. CREATING PUBLIC ACCESS TO THE VISUAL ARTS IN EUROPE

We want:

  • The arts to be accessible to all people and a culturally diverse art world.
  • Free access to publicly funded arts.
  • To increase the number of public visual arts assignments on all administrative levels.
  • Equal opportunities of procurement, exhibitions and public art projects.
  • Freedom of artistic expression and the right to cultural diversity safeguarded.
  • 2% of state government budgets spent on arts and culture4

4. ENSURING AESTHETIC COMPETENCE FOR ALL

There is a human right to create art, to admire it, critique it, challenge it, be provoked by it, respond to it, and to ignore it. All persons have rights to enjoy and have access to art and access to cultural institutions. Children must train to experience art and to express themselves artistically.

We want:

  • To strengthen the aesthetic subjects in the school and secure fair payment andworking conditions.
  • Teacher competence requirements to also be an essential element in aestheticsubjects, with compulsory education in these subjects integrated as a feature ofteacher education.
  • Article 135. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.

5. SHOWING SOLIDARITY WITH ARTISTS AT RISK AND IN EXILE

We want:

  • A vision and strategy of European decision makers with regards to support of artistsat risk in their home countries.
  • Safe havens for persecuted visual artists.
  • Permanent support programs for artists at risk.

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  1. Daisy Fancourt & Saoirse Finn. What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well- being? A scoping review. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2019 (Health Evidence Network (HEN) synthesis report 67). https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/419081/WHO_Arts_A5.pdf & http://www.euro.who.int/en/publications/abstracts/what-is-the-evidence-on-the-role-of-the-arts-in- improving-health-and-well-being-a-scoping-review-2019 & https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/329834/9789289054553-eng.pdf ↩︎
  2. EU Commission 2022: “Guidelines on the application of Union competition law to collective agreements regarding the working conditions of solo self-employed persons”. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52022XC0930(02)&from=EN ↩︎
  3. EU Commission 2022: “Guidelines on the application of Union competition law to collective agreements regarding the working conditions of solo self-employed persons”. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52022XC0930(02)&from=EN ↩︎
  4. UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development – MONDIACULT 2022 (28-30 September 2022, Mexico City), Final Declaration. https://www.unesco.org/sites/default/files/medias/fichiers/2022/10/6.MONDIACULT_EN_DRAFT FINAL DECLARATION_FINAL_1.pdf ↩︎
  5. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child ↩︎