Charge an artist a thousand! (3)
I believe the answer is:
ram
'charge' is the definition.
(I know that ram is a type of charge)
'an artist a thousand' is the wordplay.
'an artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'a thousand' becomes 'm' (Roman numeral for a thousand).
'ra'+'m'='RAM'
(Other definitions for ram that I've seen before include "farm animal" , "Crash into like male sheep" , "The constellation Aries" , "needed for PC" , "'Computer memory, initially (3)'" .)