Insurance isn’t why anyone gets into the arts. But if you’re performing, exhibiting, teaching or running an arts venue, you can’t work without it – and buying it on your own is expensive, confusing and often means navigating policies that aren’t built for creative practice at all.
So, we ran the numbers. We went out and got real quotes* for the kind of cover our members actually need, and compared them to what’s included with RAV Member Insurance.
Individual artists save around $740 a year
We priced up cover for a sole-trader performer earning $5,000 a year from their practice. Someone who needs Public Liability and Professional Indemnity to work.
Going it alone: roughly $1,053 a year ($453 for Public Liability, plus around $50 a month for Professional Indemnity – and that’s if you can find an insurer who’ll cover performers at all. Most won’t).
The equivalent with RAV membership: $309 ($278 concession).
That’s a saving of $740–$775 every year without considering the other benefits of RAV Membership. Your membership doesn’t just pay for itself, it pays for itself more than three times over.
Small arts organisations save around $900 a year
For a small arts venue with three employees and $99,000pa turnover, standalone Public Liability and Association Liability quotes came to about $2,170 a year – and that’s without cover for volunteers, which the online insurers we tried simply didn’t offer.
The equivalent with RAV membership: $1,754, with Volunteer Workers Personal Accident cover included. That’s $416 cheaper up front, plus volunteer cover worth an estimated $500 – around $900 a year in total savings.
Across our whole membership base? Around $704,000 a year.
That’s money staying in regional creative practice instead of going to insurance companies, which we love to see!
It’s not just about the dollars, the policies are designed for creative practice
The savings are real, but honestly, they might not even be the best part.
The cover is built for you. RAV’s policies are negotiated specifically for creative practice, not an off-the-shelf product designed for tradies or small businesses and retrofitted to artists. We’ve done the legwork with GSA Insurance Brokers to make sure the cover is broad, relevant and sufficient for the way creatives actually work.
Someone handles your claim. If something goes wrong, you get a claims handling service, an actual person in your corner, instead of navigating an insurer’s call centre alone.
No hold music. No hard sell. If you’ve ever spent an afternoon on hold to a telco, or given your number to a comparison site and fielded follow-up calls for the next twelve months, you know exactly what we’re saving you from 🙂
P.S. A little more about what our policies cover
RAV’s policies cover the following activities (full insurance info here). This is non-exhaustive and we encourage RAV Members to reach out to GSA Insurance brokers for advice if your activities fall outside these activities:
| Public Liability – public loss or injury in relation to: | Professional Indemnity – financial loss in relation to: |
| Temporary exhibitions and installations | Graphic design – Design errors, copyright issues, failure to deliver. |
| Presenting of/at small festivals/events (audience up to 5,000) – performing arts, community parades, exhibitions, lectures, film etc | Art restoration / conservation – Accidental damage, over-restoration, or irreversible alteration artworks. |
| Presenting performances, theatre productions, recitals, concerts, film nights, and workshops or classes for all art forms | Photography – Claims over image rights, data loss |
| Circus performance and physical theatre (subject to Specific Activities Exclusion) | Illustration / Art commissioning – IP disputes, client dissatisfaction, or misused artwork. |
| Community arts projects | Creative direction / consulting – Strategy or branding advice. Failure to deliver promised results. |
| Artist in residence and projects for all art forms | Art therapy – Professional misconduct |
| Managing your venue/studio/gallery | Set / stage design for theatre or film – Faulty design – financial loss or injury claims. |
| Conducting outings to visit arts events | Lighting / sound design – Technical errors – production delays or failures. |
| Retailing of associated items at temporary venues including markets, stalls, exhibitions and conferences | Costume / fashion design consulting – Fit, material, or copyright |
| Curating and organising exhibitions | Animation / motion graphics – Project delivery failure or content-related disputes. |
| Conservation, preservation and maintenance of artworks | Web design / digital art – Coding/design errors or IP disputes |
| Performance coaching / artist mentoring – Poor advice, anguish or breach of confidentiality. | |
| Arts education / workshops – Student injury or errors in instruction | |
| Curators / exhibition consultants – Exhibition failure, damaged works or poor advice. | |
| Copywriting / content creation – Plagiarism, defamation, or failure to meet targets or guidelines | |
| Arts-based event planning – Planning errors or safety failures | |
| Music composition / scoring – Missed deadlines, licensing issues, poor work |
| Association Liability (for organisations) |
| Wrongful management acts, professional indemnity (for orgs), employment practices liability, crime cover, statutory liability, tax investigation cover and more. |
| Personal Accident Insurance for Volunteer Workers (for organisations) |
| Expenses incurred due to injury for your volunteers if they are injured while undertaking voluntary work on your behalf. |
*Figures based on indicative online quotes obtained August 2026 for comparable cover levels ($20M Public Liability limit). Individual comparison: sole-trader performer. Organisation comparison: arts venue, 3 employees, $99K turnover. Actual quotes will vary by circumstances.