Northeast Minneapolis Arts District Board Members Margo Ashmore and Josh Blanc convened a meeting with Ben Johnson, Addy Gonzalez and Mary Altman from the Minneapolis Arts and Cultural Affairs department along with Minneapolis Arts Commission member Lana Aylesworth, who heads the commission’s policy group. They discussed the situation surrounding the destruction of a mural and other artworks, and what solutions could be organized to help mitigate and give more artists tools before and after an incident.
A big focus of the meeting was how the city and arts organizations can help educate artists, organizations and businesses on contracts to lessen the chance for ambiguity and find solutions before issues come about. Generic, common-sense checklists of possible rights of the artist and rights of those who commission art, rights of the public, and rights of property owners need to be established.
Many contracts are boilerplate pulled from previous agreements and don’t speak directly to an artist’s project. Legal advice is recommended to make sure what is being created is also protected. The group seeks to work with groups like Springboard for the Arts and Forecast Public Arts to see if such content exists and can be updated. The hope is to come up with educational workshops and/or publications on best practices from each perspective, like “so you want to commission a mural, here are some things to think about” or “so you want to paint murals for public view, here’s what you need to know.”
There are many logistics that need to be worked out between potential partners. The group said it would keep the public posted.
Forecast Public Art held a discussion of the federal VARA law on June 25. Here is a video recording of VARA law discussion. And below is the PDF.