Open Forum

Wondering if anyone can share processes, or knowledge on copyright.

As an art museum we reproduce works from our permanent collection for marketing and educational purposes. As copyright and permissions can sometimes be a challenge we are hoping to gain insights as to how you obtain permissions once a work is accessioned into a collection or how at this point we can go back and get permissions from those artists who are still living.

Then, there is the challenge of permissions from artists who are no longer living. How do you find who would be able to give permission and how long do you search for said person?

Any information/direction would be greatly appreciated!

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Gina Garden
Marketing Coordinator
Museum of Nebraska Art
Kearney NE
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Hi Gina,

For us at the Morris Museum of Art, we have a copyright permission agreement that an artist can fill out that will either grant us exclusive or non-exclusive rights to the work(s) in our permanent collection. Even with the agreements we have on file some artists we still have to reach out to due to some restrictions they've placed on reproducing their work(s). We also try to have an Artist's Contact sheet on file for our contemporary works. Sometimes it is indicated we reach out to their gallery representative, family member, or estate. The process is not perfect as I am still having to hunt down copyright information for other artworks we own. Generally, I try to look for publications or other institutions that have works by the same artists and see if they are the copyright holders or may be able to direct me to the right contact. This works for both deceased artists living artists if they are hard to find. For living artists, I try to find their website and contact them through there, sometimes it is effective and others not. The Artists Right Society is a good place to check too. Any information I find regarding an artist's copyright, I put into our database and files for future reference.

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Quinn Mendoza
Curatorial Assistant
Morris Museum of Art
Augusta GA
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-18-2022 09:52 AM
From: Gina Garden
Subject: Copyright

Wondering if anyone can share processes, or knowledge on copyright.

As an art museum we reproduce works from our permanent collection for marketing and educational purposes. As copyright and permissions can sometimes be a challenge we are hoping to gain insights as to how you obtain permissions once a work is accessioned into a collection or how at this point we can go back and get permissions from those artists who are still living.

Then, there is the challenge of permissions from artists who are no longer living. How do you find who would be able to give permission and how long do you search for said person?

Any information/direction would be greatly appreciated!

------------------------------
Gina Garden
Marketing Coordinator
Museum of Nebraska Art
Kearney NE
------------------------------

Gina, I am an attorney who practices in the intellectual property/copyright area.  There are a lot of issues with copyright and the questions you ask.  I would be happy to have an initial call with you to discuss some of them, but generally speaking, copyrights last a long time, you would need to have an assignment or transfer of the copyrightable work, and you're right, it can be difficult to ascertain the "author" or "owner."  My office number is 315.425.2831.  

ATTORNEY ADVERTISING/NOT LEGAL ADVICE

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Michael Oropallo JD
Attorney
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-18-2022 09:52 AM
From: Gina Garden
Subject: Copyright

Wondering if anyone can share processes, or knowledge on copyright.

As an art museum we reproduce works from our permanent collection for marketing and educational purposes. As copyright and permissions can sometimes be a challenge we are hoping to gain insights as to how you obtain permissions once a work is accessioned into a collection or how at this point we can go back and get permissions from those artists who are still living.

Then, there is the challenge of permissions from artists who are no longer living. How do you find who would be able to give permission and how long do you search for said person?

Any information/direction would be greatly appreciated!

------------------------------
Gina Garden
Marketing Coordinator
Museum of Nebraska Art
Kearney NE
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10/18/2022 9:53:00 AM
From: Gina Garden
Subject: Copyright

Wondering if anyone can share processes, or knowledge on copyright.

As an art museum we reproduce works from our permanent collection for marketing and educational purposes. As copyright and permissions can sometimes be a challenge we are hoping to gain insights as to how you obtain permissions once a work is accessioned into a collection or how at this point we can go back and get permissions from those artists who are still living.

Then, there is the challenge of permissions from artists who are no longer living. How do you find who would be able to give permission and how long do you search for said person?

Any information/direction would be greatly appreciated!

------------------------------
Gina Garden
Marketing Coordinator
Museum of Nebraska Art
Kearney NE
------------------------------

Thank you for all your input! We know we have a lot of work to do to catch up so your information will be most helpful as we develop a process.

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Gina Garden
Marketing Coordinator
Museum of Nebraska Art
Kearney NE
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-19-2022 10:32 AM
From: Kerry Schauber
Subject: Copyright

Hello Gina-we try and ask for copyright permission via a non-exclusive license when we acquire something from a living artist. This way we can use images of the work in whichever categories the artist is comfortable with (educational, publications, merchandise, etc.) and not have to get in touch every time. We have gone back and contacted artists to get non-exclusive licenses for work we bought years ago. Often the dealer where we bought the artwork from can put us in touch with the artist, or represents them and can sign that agreement on their behalf. As you probably know, copyright generally stays with the artist's family or descendants, so we'll often look at an artist's obituary to see if it lists family members and try and find contact information for them and send an inquiry. If you can't find anyone or get a response, you need to document your attempts, so that if anyone objects down the line, you can prove you did try and find someone to ask permission of-memos to the file saying you couldn't find contact information, or copies of correspondence, envelopes returned by the post office, etc.

 

 

Kerry Schauber (she/her)

Photo Permissions Coordinator

Memorial Art Gallery

500 University Avenue

Rochester, NY 14607

585 276 8982

 

 

 

 

Original Message:
Sent: 10/18/2022 9:53:00 AM
From: Gina Garden
Subject: Copyright

Wondering if anyone can share processes, or knowledge on copyright.

As an art museum we reproduce works from our permanent collection for marketing and educational purposes. As copyright and permissions can sometimes be a challenge we are hoping to gain insights as to how you obtain permissions once a work is accessioned into a collection or how at this point we can go back and get permissions from those artists who are still living.

Then, there is the challenge of permissions from artists who are no longer living. How do you find who would be able to give permission and how long do you search for said person?

Any information/direction would be greatly appreciated!

------------------------------
Gina Garden
Marketing Coordinator
Museum of Nebraska Art
Kearney NE
------------------------------