Public liability insurance for the artists you work with
Running a fair, open studio or exhibition? Commissioning artists for a public art programme?
Most artists do not hold public liability cover until someone asks for it. Recommend Axis in your artist pack and they can get £15 million of cover for £3 a month, with a certificate the same day. It saves you chasing paperwork, and it stops artists dropping out because they cannot meet the requirement.
Axis membership covers each artist individually. It is not event insurance and it does not replace your own cover.
Are you an artist looking for cover? Public liability insurance for artists — £15 million, £3 a month, certificate the same day.
Recommend Axis: wording for your pack
Copy this into your application form, exhibitor pack or artist agreement.
Artists must hold public liability insurance of not less than £[X] million. If you do not currently hold cover, Axis membership includes £15 million public liability and £5 million professional indemnity from £3 a month, with your certificate available the same day: axisweb.org/public-liability-insurance-for-artists
Added it to your pack? Let us know at hello@axisweb.org and we will make sure your artists are looked after.
£15 million, held by every artist
If you require participating artists to hold public liability insurance, Axis membership meets it. Every member is covered to £15 million for third party claims arising from their work: injury to a visitor, damage to your venue, damage to someone else's property.
£15 million is the highest cover available to individual artists in the UK. No other artists' membership offers it. Whatever figure your contract specifies, every Axis member exceeds it.
Underwritten by Hiscox
The cover is underwritten by Hiscox, one of the most respected specialist insurers in the UK, arranged through Howden.
Axis has been insuring artists with Hiscox for over ten years, longer than any other artists' membership organisation, and the policy has been built around how artists actually work.
Members also hold £5 million professional indemnity, which covers claims that their work fell short of what was agreed
What the artist is covered for
Working in your venue or on your site: a gallery, a studio, a market stall, a school, a public space, a temporary or borrowed space. Damage to premises they lease or rent is included.
Exhibitions, fairs, open studios, commissions, socially engaged and participatory projects, public art, workshops and talks, residencies and studio practice.
Performance and live art, as standard. Many artists' policies exclude these outright. Selling their work is covered too.
More than a certificate
Axis members have access to free legal advice helplines, open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, covering health and safety, contracts and employment. So an artist working on your project has somewhere to turn before something becomes a problem.
They also have good practice guides and templates, and a network of around 13,000 artists and art workers across the UK.
How an artist evidences it
Members download their certificate from their Axis dashboard as soon as they join and send it to you directly.
Cover begins the day an artist joins, whichever way they pay. Somebody who signs up on the Tuesday can send you a certificate the same day. Nobody is waiting five working days on a Direct Debit.
Need the detail?
Limits, what is covered, what is not, and who underwrites it. Forward it to your venue, your own insurer or your finance team if anyone needs to check it.
If your project requires cover beyond public liability, such as abuse cover for work with children or vulnerable adults, specify that separately in your contract.
Why Axis
We are an independent charity, funded by our members, supporting artists across the UK for 35 years. We take no public subsidy, so the membership is built to work for artists rather than for funders or shareholders.
By working with us, you're offering your artists more than just insurance, you're connecting them with professional support, a national network, and year-round opportunities to grow and sustain their practice.