Provisional changes would name more visual arts venues and duties within an existing award, with submissions due by 4 pm on 4 September 2026.
Employees paid to install displays, supervise gallery rooms or run museum programs may get a clearer basis for determining their award classification under changes proposed by the Fair Work Commission.
The provisional decision in case AM2024/37, issued on 14 August 2026, would rename the Amusement, Events and Recreation Award as the Amusement, Recreation, Events and Arts Award 2020, or AREA Award.
The name is only part of the proposal. The Commission also wants to add visual arts venues to the coverage definition and insert arts duties into classifications from grades 2 to 8.
This is not a new award for every artist or arts worker. Museums and galleries are already named in the current award. Nor has the Commission awarded the sector a new pay scale. The proposal is chiefly about making an existing award easier to apply to work that has not always fitted neatly into its language.
That distinction matters around steampunk exhibitions, museum programs, maker displays and art fairs, where employees, contractors, stallholders and volunteers can work in the same building under quite different legal arrangements.
More specific duties and venues
The proposed definition would expressly include art centres, including community governed centres and centres created by and for First Nations art, craft and design centres, studio spaces, residencies, art fairs, art festivals, and venues for artist run initiatives or cooperatives.
Proposed duties include visitor assistance, gallery supervision, assistance with exhibition installation, collection documentation, education and community programs, artist liaison, accessibility work, conservation, touring exhibition coordination, program management and cultural leadership.
For a paid employee installing a retrofuturist exhibition, supervising a display space or helping deliver a museum activity, those examples may make classification less of a guessing exercise. They do not guarantee coverage. As the Fair Work Ombudsman explains, the relevant award depends on the employer’s industry, the employee’s duties and the classification structure. An attractive new award title does not settle the payroll question.
The proposal does not increase wage relativities
The Commission says the new duties would clarify the existing classification structure rather than replace it. Existing wage relativities would remain unchanged.
Under the award rates effective from 1 July 2026, minimum adult hourly rates for grades 2 to 8 range from $27.08 to $33.77. Casual adult ordinary rates for those grades range from $33.85 to $42.21. The correct rate still depends on the employee’s classification and employment type, along with any applicable penalties and allowances.
The Commission declined to create proposed grades 11 and 12 for highly specialised, technical, leadership and managerial arts work. It found that the evidence did not support such a substantial expansion.
The National Association for the Visual Arts, which participated in the proceeding, said the proposal would provide clearer recognition and a stronger minimum safety net. Its response published on 17 August also argued that existing rates remain too low for much skilled and specialised visual arts work.
Contractors, volunteers and performers are separate questions
Independent makers, stallholders, sole traders and contractors do not receive employee award entitlements simply because they work at an exhibition or art fair. Their fees and conditions are generally determined by contract. Misclassifying an employee as a contractor can, however, raise separate workplace law issues. The Fair Work Ombudsman provides separate guidance on contractor entitlements.
Genuine volunteers are also outside modern award pay requirements. Calling somebody a volunteer is not conclusive. The Fair Work Ombudsman says a volunteering arrangement can become an employment relationship if it starts to resemble one, and provides separate guidance on unpaid work and volunteering.
The Commission did not propose adding marketing and communications officers to the AREA Award. Depending on their work and circumstances, those employees may come under another award or be award free.
Curators were also left outside the proposed extension. Employees assisting curators may fit some of the new indicative duties, but the Commission did not bring curators themselves into coverage on the material before it.
Live performance remains another category. Employees producing, staging, presenting or performing theatre, performance art or music may instead fall under the Live Performance Award, depending on the employer and the work performed.
The decision is still provisional. Comments must be filed with the Fair Work Commission by 4 pm on Friday 4 September 2026. If no submissions are received, the Commission says it will make the variations in the terms of its draft determinations.
No final commencement date has been set. The Commission provisionally proposes that the changes begin three months after publication of the final determinations, applying to each employee from the first full pay period starting on or after the operative date.