Entering into a collective agreement with the workers of The Dowse Art Museum, Public Share made ceramic cups for all staff, contractors and volunteers at the gallery. For the duration of the exhibition, workers agreed to use these on their daily tea breaks. In return, each worker got to keep their cup for ongoing use. The cups were installed on a rack in the stairwell leading to the Dowse staff tearoom. Each fortnight, Public Share sent baking and biscuits for the workers.

Collective Agreement was Public Share's contribution to the group show The Future of Work, curated by Melanie Oliver, which looked at the changing nature of our working lives and the impact of ever-increasing automation and globalisation.

The exhibition featured a wide range of artists whose practices address labour, work culture, and collective action, set against the backdrop of Lower Hutt – a city with a long history as a site of trade and manufacturing, having been home to industries including woollen mills, meat works, railway workshops, and factories such as Griffins and Ford.

Lower Hutt also has a notable history of workers' rights activism – it was Petone carpenter Samuel Parnell who fought for the eight-hour working day, and several significant moments of union action took place in the region, including the Petone woollen mills strike of 1890, the most prolonged to have occurred in New Zealand at the time.

For Collective Agreement, Public Share made ceramic cups for all staff at The Dowse Art Museum (employed, contracted, or voluntary), and invited staff to use these on their daily tea breaks. The cups were installed on a rack at the entrance to The Dowse staff tearoom.

This project highlighted the gallery-museum as a workplace, akin to any other, where labour is undertaken towards the presentation of creative and cultural events. Artistic labour is often not financially compensated as well as other forms of work – or even at all – since it is considered to provide other non-financial benefits (a ‘labour of love’ or leisure activity). It is also founded on a historically unequal system that relies on unpaid work and internships, while some members of the workforce receive a good salary and perks.

The agreement was made for the purpose of bringing focus to the 10-minute tea break – a hard-won right secured through organised labour. The automatic entitlement to two 10-minute breaks during the working day was lost to workers in Aotearoa New Zealand during the then National government, and was reinstated by the Labour-led government via amendments to the Employment Relations Act in May 2019.

80 slip-cast cups and mugs were produced for the project, based on four types of iconic workplace cups and mugs. A 3D printer was used to translate pictures of classic, ubiquitous staff room cups and mugs into a physical form for mould-making and slip casting, with some scaled up in size to cater for varying preferences.

The cups were made with a homeopathic mix of Public Share's Te Atatu sourced-clay and commercially bought slip — a symbolic act of connection and solidarity with the workers at The Dowse, and a direct link from one site of labour to another.

The glaze incorporated ash from the studio's open fireplace. During the months of making the cups, the fire was fed with macrocarpa and poplar felled from the studio backyard, and a storm-felled pohutukawa gifted by studio neighbours. The ash left traces of minerals appearing as small speckles in the glaze — carrying the warmth of Public Share's workplace through to the workers of The Dowse.

Members of the collective rotated the fortnightly baking deliveries, coordinating plans and sending packages to The Dowse by courier. Items such as Mouse Traps and Cheese Bites were included. The project also made a material nod to Griffin's biscuits – caramel square was made with crushed Super Wine biscuits – referencing the history of Griffin's as a manufacturer in Lower Hutt, and the ubiquity of Griffin's products in staff tearooms around Aotearoa New Zealand.

In return, and as agreed, Dowse workers used their selected cup to take a 10- minute tea break for every four hours of work and kept their chosen cup at the end of the exhibition.