Public liability insurance for an artist, starting at less than £55* per year
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Artist insurance covers a working life that happens in other people’s spaces: a portrait painted in a client’s sitting room, a mural on a commercial wall, a stall at a craft fair, a private view with wine and crowds. Public liability insurance leads the policy for exactly that reason, because the risks that actually reach artists are spilled paint on a client’s carpet, a member of the public tripping over an easel, and a sculpture toppling at an exhibition.
Professional Saver arranges business insurance for artists across the UK from £55* a year, with public liability as standard and the rest of the policy shaped to the way you work as an artist. Get a quote online in five minutes; documents arrive the same day.
Public liability insurance is the canvas the rest of the policy sits on. It covers personal injury to third parties and damage to their property while you work: the paint on the carpet, the client who trips over your kit, the visitor hurt at your stall. Public liability insurance comes as standard at £1 million, with options up to £2 million, £5 million or £10 million, and fair and exhibition organisers increasingly ask to see proof before allocating a pitch.
Business equipment and materials cover protects the tools of the practice, easels, kilns, brushes, blades and the van-load that travels to fairs, against theft, loss and damage (£100 excess). The classic artist claim is supplies stolen from a car between jobs, and it’s the cover that gets you working again the same week.
Professional indemnity insurance matters for artists working to commission and brief. If a client alleges your professional work caused them financial loss, a commercial commission that had to be redone, a public artwork that missed its specification, professional indemnity insurance covers the compensation and legal costs. Employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement once you employ anyone, including studio assistants, and every policy includes products liability insurance, legal expenses and £10,000 of financial loss cover as standard.
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The honest answer is: partly, and it pays to be precise. Business equipment and materials cover protects the kit and stock of a working practice. The value of finished artwork, a completed body of work in the studio, pieces in transit to a gallery, work hanging in an exhibition, is a different exposure that depends on values, storage and who holds the risk while work is on show. Describe what you make, what it sells for and where it sits when you get a quote, and the policy is shaped around the real numbers rather than a guess.
Because the public is part of the job. Open studios, fairs, commissions in occupied homes: an artist’s workplace is usually someone else’s space with people in it. Working with the public is where liability claims start, and £1 million of cover costs from £55* a year against compensation that can run to five figures for a single injury.
Because organisers ask first. Craft fair pitches, exhibition spaces and public commissions routinely require proof of public liability cover before confirming. The certificate is part of the booking, and ours is available online the day the policy starts.
Because the practice runs on irreplaceable kit. Materials and equipment are the artist’s payroll. Losing them to a break-in costs the replacement bill plus every commission delayed behind it, which is why equipment cover earns its premium in this profession.
From £55* a year, and that base artists insurance policy includes the £1 million public liability insurance for artists that most fairs and clients ask for. The cost then follows the practice: higher liability limits where organisers demand them, the value of equipment and materials insured, employers’ liability if you take on help, and your claims history. A self-employed painter with a modest kit sits right at the £55* end; get a quote online, itemised in about five minutes, with monthly instalments available.
An artist’s studio is wherever the work is that day. Get an artist insurance quote online from £55* a year, backed by an insurer rated AA- (Stable) by Standard & Poor’s, and protect your business everywhere the practice sets up.
From only£55per year
From only£55per year
From only£55per year
From only£55per year
From only£55per year
From only£55per year
Only employers’ liability is required by law, and only once you employ someone. Some artists carry group cover through an artists union membership scheme; check what it actually includes, because organisers and commission contracts are specific about limits and named cover. Everything else is practical rather than statutory: organisers, galleries and commercial clients enforce public liability requirements contract by contract, which for a working artist amounts to the same thing.
Yes, the public liability cover follows you to fairs, markets and exhibitions across the UK, and one annual policy beats buying event cover pitch by pitch. Tell us about regular showing patterns when you quote, and check each organiser’s required liability level against your own.
Public liability answers for accidents around your physical work: injury or property damage to third parties. Professional indemnity answers for the work itself when a commission allegedly caused a client financial loss. Most artists lead with public liability; artists working to commercial briefs should carry both.
Cover can extend to help working under your direction, and an assistant may count as an employee for employers’ liability purposes regardless of what the arrangement is called. Describe how you actually work when you quote; it’s a two-minute conversation that decides how a claim lands.
* Total number of live policies as of 31/10/2025
