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Types of Insurance
that Sculptors Regularly Need Just when it seemed
that things couldn’t get any worse: the worst happened to Charles
Ginnever. In the spring of 2003, the sculptor, who divides his time between
Vermont and California, was given two months to leave the house and studio
he had been renting for 13 years in the West Coast town of Petaluma: the
owner was looking to sell, and the price was higher than Ginnever could
pay. His options appeared to be few. Another studio space was not immediately
available; he thought about storing his bronze sculptures in a container,
“but that’s expensive, and who would want a container on their
property?” he said. However, “a lady down the road had a barn
that I could rent, and I filled it to the brim.” The rent was also
quite reasonable, $175 per month. Within a month of cramming in a lifetime’s
worth of artwork, this wooden barn in the middle of a dry grass field
caught fire. “I lost 50 years’ worth of work in that fire,”
Ginnever said. “All my bronzes were toast, three to four million
dollars down the drain.” The story gets worse:
Ginnever had no insurance on his work—there had been coverage in
the previous studio, but he let the policy lapse when he moved out—and
the owner of the barn had not understood that the insurance she had on
the building became null and void if she rented it. If it is any consolation,
Ginnever is not alone in this predicament. Harry Hearne, a raku potter
in Mulfreesboro, Tennessee, who had used an outbuilding on his property
as a studio, also suffered a devastating loss when the building burnt
to the ground in early 2001. The building and contents were protected
in his homeowner’s insurance policy but it was written in the policy,
“if any portion of the building is used as a business, no portion
is covered,” Hearne said. He hadn’t read that section, because
his insurance agent had assured him that he was OK. When most artists
are told that they should think of themselves as small businesses, most
assume that refers to record-keeping (how much they spent to produce their
work, how much money was generated in sales) and the payment of taxes.
Few businesses would
last, however, if all they did was produce stuff to sell. Items may need
to be advertised (to potential collectors) and promoted (to the media),
test marketed (exhibitions), and distributed (arts and crafts shows, shops
and galleries), all of which call for a variety of skills not ordinarily
taught in art school. (Business schools, on the other hand, can teach
those auxiliary skills but not what to produce.) Yet another body of knowledge
that may need to be acquired along the way involves insurance, of which
there are many types. Artists may seek insurance protection for their
studios against fire, theft, natural disasters (hurricane, tornadoes,
floods, lightning, earthquakes) and accidents (a visitor slips and falls,
hurting himself or damaging an object). If they have any employees, artists
are likely to be obligated by state law to take out a workers’ compensation
policy, a form of insurance covering accidents at the workplace, and they
also may arrange for their employees (and themselves) to have health insurance.
When they display
their work outside of their studios, more insurance concerns arise. There
is transit insurance, protecting the objects from the studio to the fair
or exhibition site and back again, and general liability policies that
provide coverage for pieces in a booth and for accidents that may occur
during a show (visitors falling, a fire within a booth that spreads to
other booths, shelving that collapses because it cannot support the weight
of objects). Generally, arts and crafts show exhibitors are responsible
for most accidents occurring within their booths, and some show sponsors
stipulate that artists and craftspeople carry a commercial general liability
policy. Other show organizers may make no requirement of insurance but
their contracts waive all liability for any accidents theft, or damage
that may occur during a show. (Refusing to accept liability may not hold
up, however, if an accident occurs as a result of the show organizer’s
negligence, such as visitors tripping on wires that were not adequately
taped down, inadequate security, or because of aisles that are not wide
enough.) The cost of all this
insurance varies widely, depending on the amount of coverage (most insurance
packages for artists and craftspeople offer a maximum of one or two million
dollars in total liability), the type of work created (fewer physical
risks exist for painters and graphic designers than for sculptors, especially
those who are welders), and the location of the artist. Rates tend to
be higher in Florida, California, and New York because of geography (hurricanes,
mud slides, and wild fires) and possible terrorism. Studio insurance may
also be more difficult to obtain for artists who do not have a strong
track record of sales. Insurers are reluctant to pay a settlement for
an object that has no clearly established market value other than the
artist’s sense of its worth. Even well-established
artists look to save money where they can. Sculptor Kent Ullberg, for
instance, obtains full health insurance coverage for himself, his wife
(who is also his business manager), and five employees, but the families
of those employees are required to make a co-payment. Glenna Goodacre
lowers the amount of insurance she purchases by relying on the policies
of “local and out-of-state subcontractors, who have their own companies
and do much of the heavy work in the studio, such as welding armatures,
blocking out clay, carpentry, mold-making, shipping and, of course, casting,”
her studio manager Dan Anthony said. “I keep costs down by not taking
in-transit insurance,” said Washington, Connecticut, sculptor Philip
Grausman, adding that he purchases other types of insurance “to cover
for a catastrophe.” Insurance of all types may be purchased from
local agencies and from state representatives of nationally based companies,
although many artists and craftspeople buy insurance “packages”
that are tailored to their particular needs. The Managing Agency Group
(800.274.6364, <www.mag-hrh.com>),
for instance, offers a general plan that provides up to two million dollars
in total coverage, including a studio and its contents, works in transit
and at a temporary exhibition site, medical and product liability, with
annual premiums ranging from $400 to $1,700. The wide range reflects differences
in the amount of inventory an artist or craftsperson may carry and the
cost of materials with which that person works—jewelers and sculptors
have higher replacement costs than, say, a doll-maker. Flather & Perkins
(800.422.8889, <www.flatherperkins.net>)
has two basic policies for artists, a $500 general liability plan that
covers slip-and-falls (medical payments), product liability, loss of equipment
other than computers (computers are a separate area of coverage), business
vehicle accidents, and fires, and a $1,500 fine arts package that covers
the value of the artwork itself when there is damage, theft, or destruction
in and out of one’s studio. Part of that plan covers works-in-progress,
paying the artist labor and materials costs if the piece was less than
half completed and the full selling price if the object was more than
half finished. An altogether different package is available through John
Buttine (212.697.1010 or 800.964.4454, <www.buttine.com>),
which provides insurance coverage strictly on a per-show basis, costing
$175 for up to $2 million in general liability protection and $300 for
$50,000 in property coverage. Among the other insurers that specialize
in the arts and crafts are: Artist/Craftsman
Protection Plan (301.816.0045 or 800.638.2610, <www.asicorporation.com>)
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