Twin Cities United Performers (TCUP), an organization seeking to ensure better working conditions and communications with venues for musicians and other freelance performers, celebrated the rollout of their official work advance at Icehouse on Friday, March 28.
Over 500 artists have pledged to use TCUP’s work advance when booking shows. A work advance is a written statement from either party outlining the details and conditions of a job, like payment and scheduling.
A copy of TCUP’s advance is available on their Instagram page.
The document is meant as a guide on how to ask about working conditions and to help performers adapt the advance to their personal needs, said TCUP founder and Gully Boys drummer Nadirah McGill.
“As a musician you can advance your show yourself, you can ask for these things,” McGill said. “We believe that all artists deserve to know at least the basic information that our advance includes.”
Artists are left on their own to make sure they have everything they need and details like ticket splits, green room availability and time for sound checks are often not finalized until long after a show has been booked, McGill said. They added that local venues do not have a standard process for collecting the basic information required for an advance, and it is often unclear who is responsible for gathering said information.
“Ideally it would be awesome to live in a community where venues are advancing their shows and we go into our workspaces knowing exactly what we need as performers, just like any other person who walks into their job,” McGill said.
McGill said some smaller venues, like Pillar, Green Room and Icehouse, have been supportive of TCUP’s mission, and they hope to continue working with other larger venues, like First Ave, on advancing shows.
The TCUP campaign officially launched last December when organizers held an announcement rally at Green Room. They held a concert at Mortimer’s in February to raise support for their pledge to introduce a work advance for local performers.
Now that the work advance is official and public, McGill said TCUP is focusing on holding workshops and offering support for artists.
“Knowledge sharing and resource sharing is one of the best forms of mutual aid,” McGill said.
Correction: A previous version of this article listed Mortimer’s as a smaller venue that is supportive of TCUP, when it is actually Pillar.
