Our Values

Fair play, integrity, empowerment, collaboration, thriving, humour and authenticity have always been at the heart of WTM’s philosophy.

These values are essential to the culture of our organisation, and this is how Sascha Gianella succeeded in creating what has become our greatest strength: our community. Our philosophy has always been to create an environment within which visual artists feel heard and included in order to creative relevant, long lasting and rewarding careers and to feel independent, strong, and comfortable within themselves and their practices, no matter where they wish to project their work in the art world.

This philosophy is also translated into the way we manage our relationships. At WTM, we behave with sincerity and integrity, and we champion a long-term vision in order to create an organisation that supports artists and their unique visions. We have always tried to convey these values to the ones we work with, be they our members, contractors, guest speakers, and of course employees.

Here we set out our core values as the basis for the way we do art business. These core values shape the way we interact both internally and on the WTM platform, in the office, and externally with all those we come into contact with. We know that we are not perfect, but we know also that we are willing to learn and change if it aligns with our values.

FAIR PLAY

We, The Muse addresses your rights as an artist to fair play.

The feeling that artists are not seen as valuable members of society is extremely apparent. Artists are notoriously underpaid and considerable artists accept to not be paid at all. Superannuation is mostly overlooked, and in many cases, globally, artists’ revenue does not count towards minimum income, nor are they eligible to qualify for emergency funds.

We then end up with a generation of artists that are misrepresented, misunderstood, undervalued, ignored and under-utilised.

WTM strives to make sure the visual artistic community is equipped to thrive economically, as well as emotionally, and we work together as a collective to instil awareness and change.

INTEGRITY

Integrity, said author C.S. Lewis, “is doing the right thing, even when no one is looking.” A person of integrity is revealed when they act virtuously regardless of circumstance or consequences.

WTM works transparently with every member of the collective. We strive to cultivate a culture of trust and sharing. Our artist members are expected to support others as much as they wish to be supported; to be honest, kind, fair and to participate. Our experience shows us that these traits bring about the best and most positive opportunities and experiences.

EMPOWERMENT

WTM invites inspiring figures in the art world to lead workshops and to join our artist members in Conversations on topics relevant to our times, our contemporary art world and their own areas of experience. We are proud to associate with and provide access to, many of the most inspirational artists and arts professionals of our time.

COLLABORATION

WTM as an organisation and as members regularly collaborate on projects such as curatorial services, exhibitions and service exchanges.

Our most recent collaborations include:

THRIVING

Thriving appears to come down to an individual experiencing a sense of development, of getting better at something, and succeeding at mastering something. In the simplest terms, what underpins it is feeling good about life and yourself and being good at something.

WTM works very hard to support each other’s sense of well-being, from which blooms self-worth, a sense of value, motivation, confidence and progress. In anything in life.

HUMOUR + AUTHENTICITY

It is said that to create a deep connection through humour, one needs to be its most authentic self and not be afraid to reveal its own vulnerabilities.

We recognise humanism, authenticity, and humour at WTM. We value being, being real and the discrepancies between the true self, the noticed self, and the expressed self.

We encourage each other to be true to our own authentic personality, values and spirit, regardless of the pressure to act otherwise, and find that when that is expressed with humour, this simple act has the power to improves the self and relationships with others.