Re: updates and followups

Like many artist-run centres I█ ███ ███████ █████, FCG operates on a shoestring budget. ███ ██████ █████ ███████ █ █████ ███████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ██ ████ █████ This precarity has been managed by a continued and ever-increasing reliance on unpaid overtime by staff, a situation that has been upheld for so long that it appears as if the centre can manage with the funding it receives. Yet this situation is not an anomaly. While The Employee was site-specific to FCG, the necessity of unpaid overtime to the operations of artist-run culture is the norm rather than the exception. As a former employee of Kingston’s Modern Fuel artist-run centre, Jennifer Snider writes, “in general the organizational culture of the artist-run centre is not sustainable without the contributions of unpaid overtime and volunteer labour.” Were it to be recorded, this unpaid overtime could be considered an in-kind donation of labour, which should rightfully be considered supplementary to operations. However this supplement is not additional, but necessary to the continued operations of artist-run spaces, as cultural workers across Canada can attest.