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I've developed a dedicated page which is a Compendium of the companies providing Insurance Policies for artists and art collections in North America - the USA & Canada You can find this at Insurance for Art and Artists in the USA & Canada. It provides links to information about INSURANCE POLICIES for USA & Canada for:
PLUS: On the page I also include and recommend you READ BUSINESS INSURANCE Guidebook For Artists BY CERF+ (A Studio Protector Publication). This is an EXCELLENT GUIDE to what you need to know about business insurance for artists. Just click the link and download the PDF file to keep and read at your leisure. My reason for creating this page is that I have known individual artists in the USA who have been hit by really terrible events - such as fire and tornado and flooding. For example, eight years ago, back in early September 2011, very bad wildfires in Bastrop, Texas meant Carol Marine (Carol Marine's Painting A Day) and her husband David and son had to vacate their house very fast in the early afternoon. Her house and studio were subsequently burned to the ground. See
When we stood in the front street, we could see huge clouds of billowing smoke. There wasn’t even enough time for them to take more than their computers. I backed my car through their front yard and up to Carol’s studio, but we didn’t take anything more than a few small paintings of Carol’s. They lost all her art that filled their house. Carol commented at the time The good news is, we have fire insurance. I'm trying to think of more good news, but that's all I got. I know that having proper insurance for your art business makes such a difference when trying to start again  All that remained of Carol's brand new studio after the fire at her home in Texas. Her home was also levelled. She and her family had insurance to start again... I am not associated with any of the companies in the listing and get no benefit from it. It's very much a "public information" page (as much of this website is) and was one purely derived from:
I'll periodically review this - normally to check that all the links are still live! However, I'd be more than happy to hear from you about your recommendations if you have a recommendation based on a company you have used which:
SUBSCRIBE to Art Business Info. for Artists - NEWS by Email and receive every post via email. I'm not particularly interested in hearing from companies recommending themselves unless they have a demonstrable and serious commitment to providing insurance for artists. PLEASE NOTE:
DISCLAIMER: One has to start somewhere when inviting insurance quotes - HOWEVER
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Paying for health care and business insurance, saving for retirement and recovering from disasters can be tough to handle for artists without traditional jobs  'The Moneylender and his Wife' by Quentin Massys (1456-1530) Smart Art: Why More Artists Need to Study Business is an article and a 20 minute podcast (RECOMMENDED). This post provides a quick briefing on what it's about. They both focus on why artists need to be more than just talented artists in order to succeed and survive in the art world and what they need to know and do. All quotations are from the article unless otherwise stated. Traditionally, the artist was seen as this type of person who was aloof or being unaware of the real world. It gave them some X-factor. But not anymore, because there are more than 2 million artists in the U.S., and they have to survive somehow. According to data, we know that only 40% of them will remain as working artists within five years, and only 10% of them will persist in the long run. The participants are:
CERF+ is committed to helping artists build resilient careers through sustainable business practices that can contribute to the likelihood of rebounding from setbacks, whether due to minor mishaps or major emergencies. Key points include:
 Ghost Ship - Site of a fire on December 2, 2016 that killed 36 people in an artists' collective housed in a warehouse in Oakland, California Artists need to know:
and finally...... My response to the first comment on this article from Luis G. Renart, Emeritus Professor of Marketing, IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Barcelona, Spain is my 2013 post Picasso the businessman - branding and the value of art a.k.a. this man doesn't understand what an astute business man Picasso was! REFERENCE: Subscribe to Art Business Info. for Artists - NEWS by Email
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I've just been updating my Insurance for Art and Artists page for the 1,000 year flood in Houston.
Those who already know it, will know that I do case study features to show what happens when the "these things always happen to somebody else - not me" event actually happens! The case studies feature
The situation in Houston
What's really interesting is that most of art museums seem to have learned the lesson from Superstorm Sandy - which saw art galleries in the Chelsea area of New York flooded and lots of stock lost and the galleries closed for a significant time while plaster and floors were ripped out and the interior was reinstated. The art groups seem to have thought through what to do. Or have moved very fast since. There's now an Emergency Resources for Artists in Houston Google Spreadsheet that can be found here Not so the artists. I've seen a number on social media who have lost their studios - and never ever anticipated they would be affected by flooding. Sadly I gather some/many are also not insured for flooding. Has your art group thought about to respond to an emergency?
The time to think about how best to respond to an emergency is BEFORE it happens. It's called "risk management".
Will your studio survive a major flood?
Have you thought what you would do if your studio was destroyed along with your equipment, materials and stock of artwork?
Do you insure your art business for unexpected and catastrophic events? Have you even thought about you might need to insure for? (You may be surprised). I RECOMMEND you have
Lots of artists sell art from home. It's a business model that can work well for many artists. BUT you do need to be aware of the legal and other implications of selling from home. Artsy published an article on 4th January about How to Start a Gallery in Your Apartment. This article by Casey Lesser
Unfortunately the article tends to focus only on the social and artistic considerations and wholly omits to mention critical factors which should ALWAYS be taken into consideration before you open a gallery in your spare bedroom - or your living room and a bedroom as Leo Castelli did. Hence this blog post. I would urge all those thinking of widening their options for selling art in 2017 to read on before they potentially create a lot of problems for themselves. It's not that you can't do it - but rather than it's rather more complicated than this "how to" article suggests it might be.  How to sell art from home - the nice cuddley version (published in Artsy on 4th January 2016) So here are the factors it omits to mention - but if YOU ignore them you could find yourself landed with some very expensive repercussions!  How to sell art from home - the practical, hard-nosed and business-oriented version My page on Selling Art from Home provides you with a whole page of things you need to think about and resolve before you sell art from home
There is no mention in the Artsy article of:
Do please read this page before being seduced into thinking it's really quite simple and straightforward from a legal and financial perspective to open a gallery at home. The short answer is "Yes" - insurance is needed for an art class because the public are involved. ARTIST RUN WORKSHOPS AND ART CLASSES The reason is because if you are running a commercial activity involving the public you owe them a duty of care as a third party. In other words if somebody has an accident or does something really stupid/hazardous while in your class and/or using equipment or materials under your instruction and/or on your premises then the person they are going to sue for damages - under public liability - is YOU! Public liability insurance protects an artist from legal claims if someone is injured as a result of their professional activities. The next question is WHO needs to have the insurance. In general, if you are teaching in an educational establishment - like an art school or a gallery providing workshops - then the venue will have (or SHOULD have!) an insurance policy which covers all its legal public liabilities including third party cover. Consequently if you are employed by the school you probably have nothing to worry about so long as you
However if you work on a contracted basis for a fee you might want to check whether you are covered by their insurance or not If you run your own classes then you very definitely need cover. You should also check personally on the third party public liability cover and status of any venues you use. Particularly if there are any hazards or risks associated with any materials or equipment being used. To find out about the many and varied reasons artists need insurance take a look at
 Students in one of my workshops at the Mall Galleries. The Galleries hosted the event and provided the equipment - and they carry the public liability cover. |
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AuthorKatherine Tyrrell writes about art, artists and the art business and has followers all over the world. She also delivers workshops for art organisations and reviews websites and career strategies for artists. 
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