Programs & Services
Insuring Creativity: CERF+ Business Insurance Survey
Between February and December 2007 members of six media-focused national craft organizations participated in a survey conducted by CERF+ on a variety of topics related to business insurance. Analysis was completed and a report was issued in February 2010.
Creating without Coverage – Survey Finds that Most Craft Artists Work Without Insurance
Montpelier, Vermont- February 26, 2010 - Almost three-quarters of professional American craft artists work in their home, or on their home property — but if their studio or equipment were destroyed in a fire, hurricane or other disaster, the great majority of those artists would not be covered by insurance.
That’s the key finding of a new report, Insuring Creativity, based on a nationwide survey of professional clay and glass artists, furniture and jewelry makers, metalworkers and textile artists. The survey suggests that about 69 percent of working artists are not properly insured against an accident or disaster that might damage or destroy their equipment, tools, supplies, or inventory.
“The lack of adequate business insurance represents a career-threatening financial vulnerability to craft artists who are affected by emergencies beyond their control,” said Craig Nutt, a Tennessee furniture maker. Nutt is program director for the CERF+, or CERF+, a Vermont nonprofit that helps craft artists recover from illness, accidents, or disasters.
“The results of this survey indicate a need to better inform artists of the risks they take,” Nutt added.
CERF+ has provided loans and grants to thousands of craft artists who’ve been hit by fire or natural disasters, including the several hurricanes that devastated the coastal South in recent years. When many of those artists, in applying for help, reported that they had no insurance — or that they’d learned too late that their homeowner’s policy did not cover their professional equipment or artwork — CERF+ decided to gather a nationwide snapshot of working artists and their insurance coverage.
To conduct its nationwide survey, the organization worked with six craft organizations — the Glass Art Society, the Furniture Society, the Society of North American Goldsmiths, the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, the Surface Design Association, and the Artist Blacksmith’s Association of North America. The organizations sent the survey to their members; a total of 2,921 craft artists across the U.S. responded.
CERF+ produced its report, Insuring Creativity, from the survey findings. The nonprofit’s hope, said Nutt, is that craft and arts groups will work with their members, and with insurance providers, to help more artists get affordable coverage for their studios, equipment, tools, and products insured — before a disaster strikes.
“For the most part, we hear from people after a disaster,” he noted. “And that’s kind of too late to be thinking about insurance.”
Cost Is Biggest Obstacle to Coverage
CERF+’s report says that about 27 percent of artists surveyed thought their homeowner’s insurance covered their business-related property — but follow-up questions found that only five percent of those artists had actually taken steps to get their business property covered.
“If you don’t have an insurance ‘rider’ that covers you for professional artwork you do on your home property, then you’re almost surely not covered,” Nutt noted.
“If you offer things for sale, or you accept money for goods or services, then you’re in business as far as the insurance company is concerned — and that affects your coverage,” he explained. “It’s possible they could deny a claim on your house, like if you burn it down from something you did in your studio.”
Cost is the biggest obstacle to getting business insurance, cited by 60 percent artists who don’t have it. Almost 80 percent of those surveyed said they would be likely to buy a business-insurance policy if one was offered by a craft organization to which they belong.
“What’s called a ‘business owner’s plan,’ or BOP,” Nutt said, “is usually a mix of coverage that starts with liability and bundles in property — tools, machinery, supplies, everything except the building. It’s also possible to get a rider on your homeowner’s that would cover an attached studio, or a studio that’s elsewhere on your home property.”
Sixty-six percent of the artists surveyed spend at least 20 hours per week doing work that relates to their craft business. Eighty-five percent work alone. The more hours an artist puts in, the longer he or she has been in business, and the more business-related property he or she owns, the more likely that artist is to have coverage, the survey found.
CERF+’s goal in sharing its findings is to make a difference — not just by raising awareness among artists, but also by equipping arts organizations and insurance providers with the data they need to develop new coverage plans.
“We’re hoping this will assist people who are trying to put plans together, and inspire some organizations to look into this for their members,” Nutt concluded.
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