Union of the Israeli Artists

Years: 2008 to 2016

From the early 2000s, when an active union for artists in Israel began to take shape, I was only partially involved in its activities. A short time after I exhibited The Pyramid Game, the union’s board of directors decided to resign in protest at the miniscule financial support provided by the Ministry of Culture. Board member Varda Givoli asked me to create a new board of directors, “or else seven years of activity would go down the drain.” I felt I had no choice but to accept the challenge, and to try to improve the position of the artists through the union.

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In 2008 I was elected chairman of the board. Like all board members, I also filled the position as a volunteer. We operated on several fronts: We launched the new board with a party we called, “Another Line on the Resume,” in the hope of raising awareness of the plastic artists and their pitiful situation regarding the amount of public funding they received and the general economic exploitation of the sector. The norm was to show work in a group exhibition to gain exposure, which led only to more exposure, with no economic horizon. From 2008 to 2012 we led several campaigns, starting with the demand to increase the budget allocation for the fine arts within the national culture budget. In 2010 I published a study about the economic and statutory aspects of the local arts sphere, and it enabled us to demand a change in the budget.

We drew up recommended contracts to sign with galleries and museums, we led a campaign against Bank Hapoalim and PR consultant Rani Rahav over the issue of the sale of artwork at an exhibition held to support the society for the war on AIDS, to institutionalize the transfer of 25% of income earned to the artists. We took action to reveal information that was concealed from the general artists public and ensured that they had access to it. During the 2011 countrywide social justice protests in Israel, we were among the leaders of the protests by the artists vis a vis the museums, and we demanded the dissolution of the council of museums. Among other things, we worked to extend the artists’ property tax discount granted by the Tel Aviv municipality, to all the fine artists in the plastic arts.

Between 2013 and 2016 (when the artist Gilad Ophir was chairman of the board) I was the head of the Department for Research and Relations with The Establishment and the representative for the plastic fine arts sphere in the Cultural Institutions non-profit organization, and was also part of the group focused on systemic thinking about the promotion of culture in Israel, with an emphasis on the sphere of the fine arts.

During my eight years with the union, I participated in additional studies, played an active role in the board meetings and continued to participate in the art scene as both an artist and an activist. My activities with the union allowed me to understand the needs of the young artists, more mature artists, and veteran artists. In the framework of attempts at dialogue with directors of the public museums and galleries, alongside the struggles and the dialogue with the Ministry of Culture (headed in those years by ministers Limor Livnat and Miri Regev), I was privy to the workings of the mechanism that creates the art scene in Israel. As I understand it, the great challenge that faces the art scene is the ability to hold a productive and creative dialogue that encompasses the variety of its members. If we manage to understand the needs of the artists, the curators, the collectors, the museums, the galleries, the fairs and the art schools we can (perhaps) create a unique apparatus which recognizes the needs of each sector, and at the same time map the common needs, so as to come together to create change vis a vis the municipal and the government systems.