Martha:

Although I’m no longer responsible for the program and future contracts might change, the Town of Huntington (a suburban municipality of over 200,000 on Long Island, NY) Contracts through August 2018 have artists retain copyright (granting the Town reproduction rights for non-commercial purposes) and retain VARA rights, with a few specific partial waivers allowing removal under certain conditions much as Julia Moore indicated.

In my experience asking artists to waive VARA and grant copyright to the commissioning agency is a common approach of municipal attorneys unfamiliar with these legal protections for artists.  Out of ignorance of how adversely this approach is viewly by many artists, they naturally choose to aggressively protect the municipality’s interests.  It is often necessary to educate counsel about how this aggressive approach is likely to discourage many qualified and experienced artists from accepting commissions under these adverse terms as Martha is obviously attempting to do.

John Coraor
Cultural Management Partners LLC



On Thu, Nov 15, 2018 at 8:20 PM Julia Muney Moore <jmoore@indyarts.org> wrote:
Our contracts expressly state that copyright remains with the artist, but the agreement includes a limited license for us. As for VARA, our contracts assert the artist's VARA rights but require a partial waiver to allow the piece to be removed under certain circumstances. 

Julia Moore (mobile)

On Thu, Nov 15, 2018, 4:13 PM Martha Peters <MPeters@artscouncilfw.org wrote:

Dear Colleagues,

 

The City of Fort Worth’s Law Department is in the process of updating public art contract templates for preliminary design, final design and artwork commission.  Under our current contracts, artists retain copyright in their work and have the opportunity to reclaim their work in the event there is an alteration to the site.  The new language being contemplated would have artists waive their copyrights and VARA rights. 

 

In order to illustrate best practices in the field, it would be most helpful to hear from as many of you as possible as to where your contracts stand on these matters.  A brief response is all that is requested.

 

Please note that I have shared a link to the PAN tools on the Americans for the Arts website, as well as the 2005 Annotated Model Commission Agreement with the Law Department.

 

Thank you,

Martha

 

Martha M. Peters|Director of Public Art

Arts Council of Fort Worth

1300 Gendy Street

Fort Worth, TX 76107

(817) 298-3025

 

www.fwpublicart.org

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--
John

John E. Coraor, Ph.D.
Founder & Chief Consultant
Cultural Management Partners LLC
P.O. Box 1294
Huntington, NY   11743
631-271-3909