I spend most of my day staring at screens, and I don't think that's unusual. Most of us creatives do these days. Researching, referencing, scrolling through feeds and calling it "visual research".
But here's the thing: no amount of Pinterest boards or even the best social media for artists will ever replace standing in front of actual work. The texture, the scale, the way light hits a surface; none of that translates through a screen.
This is why I'm obsessed with the Artist Membership Project. It's the art world's answer to those "take a book, leave a book" boxes. Except instead of paperbacks, there are gallery membership cards stashed in lockboxes around London. You get the WhatsApp location and code, open the box, grab the card, see the show, return it. It's mutual aid meets a heist movie.
The project launched three months ago when curator Ben Broome realised that artists couldn't afford the £18-£20 tickets that major institutions now charge. So he crowdfunded some memberships, bought some lockboxes, and created a WhatsApp group. Now 700 people are using it, and the cards get passed around several times a day.
Why this matters
As creatives, we're all constantly looking for fresh inspiration. One of the best ways to get that is to step away from our screens, head out and look at things in person; where the colours aren't flattened and the details aren't cropped out. But when you're a junior or a freelancer, £20 per exhibition adds up. Want to see three shows in a month? That's £60. Enjoying art starts to feel like a luxury rather than part of the job.
In that light, the Artist Membership Project presents itself as "a little bit clandestine, a little bit punk," as Ben put it in this Guardian interview. And the institutions are predictably furious: their terms explicitly forbid card sharing, as you might well expect. But ultimately, what are they going to do?
The project has shown there's genuine hunger for access, and now galleries are responding. The Whitechapel Gallery's director wants to explore supporting artists. The Barbican is working with Ben to develop a subsidised membership programme for artists. His hope is that all of London’s institutions will follow suit.
A stunt, not a scam
Of course, if this were a slick operation setting out to systemically defraud art organisations, it would highly reprehensible. But let's be honest, this is more of a snarky stunt than calculating scam, and it's not going to last for very long. Already, the cards are getting so waterlogged they're barely usable. One lockbox has seized up. The Barbican has cancelled Ben's membership twice for "suspicious activity".
But none of that is really the point. This wasn't designed for longevity: it's a provocation, a way of highlighting how absurd it is that the people making our high culture can't afford to see it. After all, artists in the UK now earn 40% less than they did in 2010, with a median income of just £12,500.
Yes, the entire sector is struggling. But while we wait for institutions and government to sort themselves out, there's something genuinely heartening about 700 people passing around soggy membership cards because they believe seeing work matters.
When Ben did a studio visit with a recent graduate, he asked if she'd seen the Ed Atkins show at Tate Britain. She'd have loved to, she said, but couldn't afford £18. That conversation started this whole thing. It's that simple and that urgent.
The project's ultimately doomed: how long can waterlogged cards and seized lockboxes really last? But it's currently my favourite bit of creative problem-solving in London. It's shown that artists and creatives will organise themselves when institutions can't or won't meet their needs.
And honestly? In a world where we're drowning in digital, where every reference feels like it's been seen a thousand times, where inspiration gets reduced to whatever performs well on Instagram, a guerrilla network helping people see actual art feels quietly revolutionary... in the best possible way.
For more alternative ways to see art, that don't cost a thing, see our favourite online art galleries.
