Americans for the Arts

No matter where you are in your career as an artist, you’re probably used to wearing a lot of different hats. You likely do your own bookkeeping, maybe your own accounting, definitely your own marketing and promotion. As your creative pursuits grow and expand, you may even find yourself staring face to face with some sort of legal issue. My hope is that you do not become your own lawyer. Even lawyers don’t represent themselves. As the old adage goes: any lawyer who represents themself has a fool for a client. That being said, legal issues are important at all points during an artist’s career; whether you are an amateur or professional, emerging or established, an artist should know enough about the legal issues relevant to creative practitioners that they know when to ask for help.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, “I’m an artist, but I don’t have any legal issues to worry about.” Well, I have some bad news for you. Every artist has legal issues to worry about (they aren’t all bad legal issues, though!). Every artist is a small business, and every small business has legal issues and needs. Just as small business has accounting, banking, and insurance needs, so do artists. While it may be difficult to know exactly what your legal needs might be, there are three categories of activities that artists participate in that are directly related to legal issues relevant to your artistic livelihood.

Artists Create. Artists Collaborate. Artists Cultivate.

As an artist, you create! For any type of artist who makes something (writer, painter, musician, sculptor, performer, digital artist, maker, etc.) there is likely a type of intellectual property associated with the expressions that you bring into the world. For most artists, the most relevant type of intellectual property is called copyright. Most artists are copyright authors and owners, some without even knowing it! Copyright is a way for artists to protect and exploit their artistic expressions. The rights associated with copyright are implemented and enforced based upon complicated laws. Working with an attorney can help you ensure that your copyrights are maximized for protection and financial gain. A lawyer can also help you make sure that you aren’t accidentally infringing on someone else’s copyrights.

Collaboration is a key aspect to what most artists do. Whether it be working with other artists on a project, doing freelance work, or even consulting with a patron who is commissioning a piece, artists engage with others to produce, show, sell, or perform their work. These collaborations, whether personal or professional, are dictated by contracts and contract law. Many artists don’t even realize that their work involves so many contracts because many don’t use documents with the word “contract” at the top to memorialize agreements. Most artists make verbal agreements with their collaborators, and a lot of the time that works. However, I can’t count the number of times my phone has rung with calls from people for whom the verbal contract did not work.

Working on a written contract with collaborators is a great legal tool and a great community tool. Each individual has their own needs, wants, and expectations related to the creative projects they are associated with. Written contracts allow collaborators to work with one another to fully flesh out all the important and relevant aspects of a project before problems arise or there is money on the table. And don’t think about contracts as being something only for the shrewdest artists. Think of them as something for artists who care about taking the time to hash out all administrative aspects of a project, so that the creative work can be completed to its fullest potential. While I believe that artists and collaborators should work together to come to the terms of an agreement by themselves, working with an attorney to finalize or review any final contract is a great way to make sure that everything is correct.

Artists cultivate their body of work for the long term (everyone has their oeuvre in the back of their mind). The same concerns should be applied to the business side of your art. The law recognizes anyone who is doing anything that makes any money as a business. This means that most artists are unwitting Sole Proprietors, where there is no legal difference between the artist as an individual and the artist as a business. The artist could be personally liable for any actions that they take on behalf of their artistic endeavors. Not to fear! Many artists set up single member Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) to try to limit the risk associated with their work. There are other potential benefits related to forming an LLC, or potentially some other type of business entity, under which to conduct your arts practice. An attorney can help you figure out what business entity might be best for you.

I don’t write the above with the intention of having you drop all that you’re doing to call your neighborhood attorney immediately (although I know some of you might). The information provided about copyrights, contracts, and LLCs is merely to remind you, fellow artist, that there is a mostly invisible structure and framework that governs important aspects of our work. Just as we took the time to hone our craft, so should we be aware of any system that could have implications regarding our work and livelihood. Throughout the country, many locales have organizations that provide access to pro bono (free!) legal services for artists related to the issues I describe above. Many of these organizations are called something like “Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.” I suggest you reach out to one of these organizations the next time that you Create, Collaborate, or Cultivate!

To hear more from Adam about why legal services are an important part of support for individual artists, join us for our Supporting Individual Artists Coffee Chat: Legal Support for Artists at 1:00 pm ET on Friday, March 29, 2019, or register for on demand access after the event.