Five Reasons Why You Might Need to Review Your Public Liability Insurance

If you’d rather sort it now, Axis membership includes £15 million of public liability insurance for artists for £3 a month, and your certificate is in your dashboard the day you join.

Get covered today, £3 a month

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1. You’re taking your work out

Exhibitions, fairs, festivals, workshops and installations all bring the public close to your work, often in a building that isn’t yours. Check that your policy follows you to those places, not just to your studio. Axis cover goes with you to galleries, studios, fairs, festivals, schools, commissions on site and borrowed buildings, anywhere in the UK and EU.

2. You’ve moved into a new space

Moving from the kitchen table to a studio, or opening your studio to visitors, changes your risk. Home insurance often doesn’t cover people who visit for your work, so check yours rather than assume it does. If you rent or borrow a space, check you’re covered for damaging it too. Axis membership includes damage to premises you lease or rent, which matters if you’re in a temporary studio or someone else’s building.

3. Someone has asked for a higher figure

Most contracts ask for £5 million or £10 million, but £15 million is now appearing in commissioning packs from local authorities and public bodies, and if your limit falls short of the figure in the contract, you can’t take the work. Axis membership includes £15 million, the highest cover available to individual artists in the UK, so you meet whatever the contract asks for.

4. Your practice has changed

Practices move, and policies don’t always move with them. If you’ve started selling your work, at a fair, in a shop or online, you need products liability. If you’ve started taking commissions or giving advice, you need professional indemnity. If you’ve moved into performance or live art, read the exclusions, because plenty of policies leave it out. Axis membership includes all three as standard. If your new work involves children or vulnerable adults, some commissioners will also ask for abuse cover, which our policy doesn’t include, so check the contract and get in touch if you want a hand.

5. You’re paying more than you need to

Bought on your own from an insurer or broker, cover at the level commissioners ask for runs into the hundreds of pounds a year. Axis is a charity funded by its members, so we buy one policy for the whole membership and share the cost, which brings £15 million of cover down to £30 a year, or £3 a month. If cost is a barrier, we offer concessionary rates.

Before you let any cover lapse

Axis cover works on a claims-made basis, which means a claim is handled by the policy in place when the claim is made, not the one in place when the work happened. Keeping your membership current is what protects the work you’ve already done.

What you get

£15 million public and products liability, £5 million professional indemnity with legal costs paid on top, free legal, tax and counselling helplines, and a certificate in your dashboard the day you join, whichever way you pay. Membership also brings opportunities and jobs, awards to apply for and a network of around 13,000 artists and art workers across the UK.

Get covered today, £3 a month

^{Check the detail first, download the policy summary (PDF).} 

Want the detail first? Read our guide to public liability insurance for artists or the insurance FAQs.