What do we need in order to live well and keep going as artists?
How can we organise together to transform our material conditions and get what we need?

Developed from knowledge and insights gathered through organising as part of Industria and Artists Union England, this session will combine practical advice on artists pay and working conditions with space to discuss the issues we face as artists and imagine alternatives together. The session will build an overview of the possibilities of artists unions and broader artist and art worker organising.

This session will be led by Maddy Pledge and Maxi Smith, joint secretaries of Artists Union England and co-organisers of Industria.

Artists Union England is a trade union for visual and applied artists, and artists with a socially engaged practice who are working in England. Launched in 2014, AUE gained its formal status as a trade union in 2016, and has been a member of the TUC and GFTU since then. AUE started as the idea of three artists, launched with 12 founding members, and as of June 2025 has over 2000 members.

Industria is an artist-run organisation, examining and challenging the current conditions of the art world. Recent work includes Structurally Fcked, an inquiry into Artists pay and conditions in the public sector that was commissioned by a-n and published in 2023, and most recently From Hand to Mouth to Bread and Roses, an inquiry into the lives of the Artists Union England membership and the role of contemporary artists unions in building grassroots power in the arts, published by Artists Union England in 2025.