Any fees that are charged for AMIEN's services are used solely to pay for the expenses associated with providing the services. Neither the Administrator nor the Moderators receive a salary or are otherwise paid to perform the services of AMIEN.
What’s included when I register with AMIEN?
You’ll have unlimited access to the information through our website as well as the following extras when you register at the forums.
Is there a fee?
No. Simply register as a User in the Forums. The people who use its services support AMIEN through their generous donations.
Are companies involved?
Yes, certainly: Most of our Moderators work for art materials manufacturers. But companies can’t pay for their involvement, though they can be Supporters like any other User. Supporters of AMIEN can make donations to the organization but do not expect to have any influence on the operating principles of AMIEN. Companies (art materials manufacturers, retailers, distributors, instrument-makers, and so on) derive the benefit of being publicly recognized for their honest contributions to AMIEN.
What companies or products are rated on AMIEN?
None. It is up to the artist to determine whether a particular product is suitable for the art. AMIEN will not tell you how to make your art, does not have an aesthetic point of view, and does not permit the promotion of particular aesthetic points of view on the website.
Why would I use AMIEN, when I can just ask my fellow artists or teachers, or search the Internet, for information?
How do you know if the information is good, and unbiased? Art materials education in secondary and post-secondary educational institutions is practically non-existent today. Artists who use a particular material or method have been taught to do so, somewhere; do you know if the teacher was well trained? This problem is well recognized and is more than 60 years old.
Anyone who sells a product is biased towards the product: that’s a business fact, and there’s nothing wrong with it. But that doesn’t mean you will be guaranteed an unbiased opinion about a class of products, or a process.
Most books and other information sources for artists are out-of-date from the moment they are published, including The Painter’s Handbook. Each year, hundreds of new art material products are produced – to say nothing of the thousands of non-art products that artists also use. How do you know whether the material is appropriate for you to use, or what might happen if you use it? The Internet is particularly distressing in this respect. Even there, many people are pushing a particular idea, aesthetic, or material. That’s bias.
At AMIEN, we make comments based on our principal staff experience of more than 35 years of associations with the world of artists: art materials manufacturers, conservation research scientists, standards-writing groups, foundations, conservators, artists, retailers, curators, collectors, writers about art materials and others who share one common goal. We want artists to be able to make durable art if they choose to do so, and we want them to have the best current information they can about how to use their materials, and what to use. Mark Gottsegen has never endorsed or promoted a commercial art material product. Nor do we do so at AMIEN. At AMIEN, we only even recommend a product if it’s unique – and an art material product can only maintain its uniqueness for a year, at most, before someone else copies it. In that respect, AMIEN deals in nothing tangible except ideas.
How long has the principal of AMIEN been in working on its ideas?
Since 1974:
Complete CV available upon request.
