Burnt by the Art Industry

Episode One — Leah Justyce, Founder

I have been a professional artist for 26 years. The last 10 have been the worst — not because the work got harder, but because of who the industry let in. A wave of businesses started up banking on artists' desperation. They promise exposure, as if exposure ever paid a bill or meant a single sale. They charge entry fees for shows you might not even get into. They charge representation fees for representation that never materialises. And the marketplaces — the ones that are supposed to be the easy option — take up to 50 percent commission, sometimes more once every other fee is added on. The part that stays with me most is how normal all of this has become. Artists accept it because they are told this is simply how the industry works. It isn't. It's how an industry works when it has spent decades figuring out how to extract money from people who love what they do enough to keep paying it. Solene Haus exists because I got tired of accepting that. Flat 0 percent. No entry fees. No representation fees that go nowhere. No exposure promises instead of payment. If you've lived any version of this story, I want to hear it — and so do other artists.

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