Thanks, Chris—we have been working with artists for years and we know how to put this in a commissioning agreement, and we absolutely don’t promise to enforce the artist’s copyrights for them.  But we are finding that the public is unaware of the rights of artists to their work, and because we are an arts council we feel it’s our job to be that interface. We are looking for a concise way to explain artists’ rights, particularly on the one mural we have immediate access to since it is located on our building, because we can see every instance of unauthorized use.  Our thought is to create a flyer that our receptionist can run out and hand to someone, directing them to contact the artist for permission.  

Our goal is not to enforce every artist’s copyrights citywide: only to put people on notice, and for our building’s artwork (which we commissioned) we feel that it is a service to the artist as well as to the public to explain why we are intercepting certain uses.  We can’t do this 24-7, but we feel a responsibility during working hours.

Thanks again!

Julia Muney Moore
Director of Public Art

Arts Council of Indianapolis
924 N. Pennsylvania St.
Indianapolis, IN  46204
o (317) 631-3301 x240
m (317) 332-8382
e jmoore@indyarts.org





On Apr 24, 2018, at 5:15 PM, Christian Guerra <christian.guerra@boston.gov> wrote:

Hi Julia,

The issue of artist right's about copyright and intellectual property for public art is complex, and challenging to explain to marketing professionals and artist. 

When a work of art is commissioned or installed in public, the artist will maintain their intellectual property ownership and rights (including copyright) associated with their artwork. When the City commissions a project our contract and onboarding process covers a range of topics including e.g. intellectual property, copyright, licensing, sub-licensing, and acknowledgments. Yourself and your legal counsel will know best what the artist agreement outlined to ensure what rights the commissioning authority and the individual artist have to negotiate with this third-party company.

Nancy Schön is an excellent example of an artist that knows and exercises her rights to protect her intellectual property. I have known some artists to simply mail invoices to companies for using their artwork in a company's marketing campaign. The Arts and Business Council is an incredible resource for public artists to learn what rights they have in these situations. They provide legal assistance, workshops, and online webinars for public artists.

Best,

Chris

On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 3:50 PM, Julia Moore <julia.moore.work@gmail.com> wrote:
We're looking for some model language to educate the public that yes, public art is copyrighted by the artist and no, it's not free for people to take photos of it and use the photos commercially.  What words do you use that seems to work for you, and do you put it on your public signage next to the artwork?  What's been the response?

Thanks!

-- 
Julia Muney Moore
Director of Public Art
Arts Council of Indianapolis

(317) 631-3301 x240
(317) 332-8382 mobile

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-- 

Christian Guerra
Art Collection + Program Manager of the Boston Art Commission
Mayor's Office of Arts + Culture, City of Boston
Boston City Hall Rm 802 | 617.635.2424

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