Why doesn't FIGMENT pay artists?

We believe that everyone is creative, and that everyone has the capacity to create and share art. We want our FIGMENT events to be a platform in which everyone is welcome and encouraged to bring and share their artwork.
Our FIGMENT events are created with very little money changing hands: the events are created by volunteers, working with artists who contribute their work for free; all the art at our events is offered for free to the general public.
We do create special opportunities, where we can, for carefully selected artists (usually curated by a jury) to receive funding and compensation for their work, such as our summer-long sculpture and minigolf programs in New York City. But we want to make sure that any compensation received serves to increase, rather than decrease, participation in our programs.
If you, as an artist, are at a point where you must be compensated for your work, perhaps FIGMENT isn't the right venue for you to show your work, or perhaps it's a place where you could consider showing something new and risky, something you're trying out, something that you haven't tried before.