The most important thing for us is to make this space possible; this space is mainly defined by being shared and a meeting place between artists, creators, and those who are starting out in experimental techniques. Our goal is to offer a place for everyone, that’s the reason to pursue the fair price for all members of this community: those who lead workshops, give conferences, participate in the festival, exhibit their work, attend meetings or collaborate in any of our actions.

 

Ágora is a space for togetherness, where each one contributes from their own place. In order to carry out our 4 courses and the almost 100 hours of content, we need to cover a series of expenses that are mostly fixed costs. This fact means that there are payments that we must make before starting the courses but they do not depend on the number of registered participants. The Experimentalphotofestival Association has taken this risk knowing that we had the support of many participants and artists from our community, and also based on our core idea: create spaces that did not exist before and make them possible.

 

We recognize people as our greatest value and that’s why we seek the fair price so that participants can find affordable content and along with this, be capable of paying our teacher’s dedication as much as possible. However, this balance is made up of other variables that are not usually taken into account. The management and production of projects also have their costs: design, communication, website, postage, editing and production of videos, payment of digital platforms, bank commissions, back-office, artists and collaborators and everything that contributes to generating quality, diverse and innovative content.

 

Finally, behind this management and coordination, we find the workers of Agora. As a team, we have taken a huge risk with a lot of passion, because we are convinced is worth it. Currently, our salary varies according to every academic period's income. That’s why this is the weakest item in our economy. If the income is not the minimum, we are the firsts who don’t get paid and assume any kind of debt. However, we work every day with the awareness that we must move towards a fair pay as cultural workers, convinced that our role as facilitators of experimental photography is relevant and urgent to professionalize.

 

In the table below we are sharing the budget for our first academic year 2020-2021, including the breakdown of income and expenses. As an overview, the amount we need every year for Agora reaches 26.000 euros. Proportionally, we expend 32% on the teachers and copyright payments, 21% on the Agora team salaries, and 26% on operational expenses and making off audiovisuals. It must be remembered that non-formal education in Spain is imposed with a VAT of 21%, meaning that 21% of our total incomes are destinated for tax payments.

 

As you can see, the main focus in our economy is the work of collaborating artists and operational expenditure in order to guarantee the quality of content. All human resources salaries are assigned according to dedication hours with the following price per hour: price hour artist/teachers, 30 euros; price hour Agora moderator, 25 euros and; price hour Agora management, 12 euros.

 

You can review further information regarding our economic goal and the achieved situation in the following table. Since we are a community, we consider that economical transparency is essential to continue a trustable relationship.