November 2024

Dear Agony Aunt As a ceramic craftsperson I work in a number of ways, selling my work through various outlets and sometimes taking on personal commissions to make something special on request. So far I‘ve never had any problems but I’m nervous in case something goes wrong and I might be liable for causing injury or loss to someone. Can you advise me about what sort of insurances I might need to protect myself? Also where might I find appropriate cover for my purposes? Riskless, Leichhardt --- Dear Riskless Interesting that you should raise this as the Inner West Creative Network is in the process of investigating the possibility of organising a discounted insurance scheme for its members – watch this space. In my view, insurance cover is important for all creatives even if you are not working as a professional. But it can be expensive and you have to assess what are your vulnerabilities so as to choose what cover is necessary and suitable for your particular purposes. To be clear, I can only give you general advice. You would have to check out specific policies yourself. Thinking about your particular practice, I will describe the 3 most common forms of cover you might want to consider, but also I’ll mention 3 others that could apply. i) Public Liability Even if you are not engaging with the public, most people take out this insurance in case of an accident that could be claimed to have resulted from negligence. This is needed for example, if you have visitors to your work space (even if it is rented) where visitors could be injured or their property damaged. It might also be needed if you undertake public projects or consultancies and the commissioner doesn’t have a policy that can be extended to cover you. ii) Professional indemnity If you offer service or advice to others, this form of cover would provide for a breach of your professional obligations. For example, you could be asked to give advice on how to conserve a ceramic work. If you mess up causing damage to the article, this insurance could apply to protect you. iii) Products Liability As a maker, you might want to consider this insurance. It will cover your liability for your ‘product’, i.e., anything you make, sell or supply in any way that causes injury or illness, or in the worst case, death of another person/s or damage to their property. The bad news is that the liability has no time limit so you would need to continue the cover even if you stop making and selling your wares. This insurance does not include coverage for loss or damage to your own artworks or other goods and materials, or your studio and equipment. A Public Products Liability policy can extend to cover up to three volunteer assistants who work casually with you under your supervision. This does not cover Personal Accident (see below). By the way, if you employ staff you would need to deal separately with specific obligations such as Workers Compensation. iv) General Property If you think you need cover for accidental damage to, or destruction or loss of your own artist supplies and tools anywhere in Australia, this might be for you. v) Property in custody or control To cover accidental damage to or loss or theft of someone else’s property that you have custody of, e.g., equipment you have borrowed to use yourself, this type of insurance provides coverage. Usually you would be able to claim up to a certain specified limit. vi) Personal accident This is another one you could consider though perhaps less common for freelance artists. If you are injured so that you cannot work, this cover could provide you with income replacement, even if the injury didn’t happen while you were working as a craftsperson. It’s likely that the cover would be based on your average weekly income (might be hard to calculate) for a period of up to a year. However, usually it won’t cover you if unable to work due to illness and won’t cover medical costs. Also, this insurance only applies to you, not anyone you subcontract. In terms of where you should look for appropriate insurance policies, if IWCN is not able to organise some that suits you in time, there are other some arts organisations that have arrangements in place, e.g., the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) offers Premium Plus membership which includes five of the forms of insurance I have mentioned above, plus Tenants Liability cover. Click here for details Note there is an extra charge for practitioners who use a kiln. Also, specifically, AAMI offers public liability and public and product liability cover for market stalls if that was something you needed Click here Finally, it probably goes without saying that you should take all reasonable care with your goods and equipment, try to anticipate where there might be risks and fix any potential hazards. But as we all know, accidents can be totally unpredictable.