Who Owns That Image? Seminar

26 November 2002. Free entry.

Delia Browne, Executive Director of the Arts Law Centre of Australia

Making it in the Visual Arts: All You Need to Know But Were Too Afraid to Ask - Practical Legal Advice On Contracts and Copyrights For Visual Artists
A touring seminar programme by the Artists Alliance

- Six months after a huge sporting event (which must remain nameless) in Sydney, the art works which more than a dozen indigenous Australian artists had lent to the associated art event had not been returned to the artists.
- A prize-winning work by a well-known Australian painter was used in a television ad without consulting the artist.
- An artist was commissioned to do a series of billboards for a well-known Sydney arts festival centred around sexuality (which must also remain nameless). The festival organisers were concerned that the works - which featured stereotypical 'happy family' images with recognisable slogans like 'Membership has its privileges' - might result in legal action, and wanted the artist to indemnify them against legal action.

Each of these issues has been solved by the Arts Law Centre of Australia. Delia Browne, a New Zealander and executive director of the centre, will be in New Zealand in late November as a guest of Artists Alliance. She will be holding a series of seminars called Making It in the Visual Arts - practical legal advice on contracts and copyright for visual artists .

"It's extremely hard to make a living as an artist," Delia Brown says, "and most artists can¹t afford legal advice through the normal channels. That makes them vulnerable to being ripped off."

The Arts Law Centre of Australia was established as the national community legal centre for the arts in 1983 and now handles some 3000 cases a year by phone, as well as face-to-face consultations for subscribers.The visit is part of an Overseas Visitors Project organised by Artists Alliance in partnership with Creative New Zealand and part of the organisation¹s professional development programme. Artists Alliance was established 10 years ago to represent and advance the professional interests of the visual arts sector of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

"Delia's visit is timely in that ArtsLawNZ is in the planning stages and Artists Alliance is very supportive of that initiative," says Maggie Gresson, Executive Director of Artists Alliance. "Copyright issues are of enormous concern to the visual arts community - in fact all who work in the creative sector - and the public seminars are aimed at answering some of those concerns."

The Physics Room is pleased to be the Christchurch venue for this Lecture series. Maggie Gresson and Delia Browne are available for interviews before or after the seminars, please contact the Physics Room for any further details. The Physics Room receives major funding from Creative New Zealand/Toi Aotearoa.