RARIN OPEN FORUM MINUTES

AAM Annual Meeting

Dallas, May 14, 2002

 

In attendance:

á      Vanessa Burkhart, Head Registrar, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Forum Leader, vburkhart@ima-art.org

á      Ruth Roberts, Coordinator of Rights and Reproductions, Indianapolis Museum of Art, rroberts@ima-art.org

á      Jeanne Lil Chvosta, Museum Consultant, Dallas, Texas,  jchvosta@earthlink.net

á      Anne Sullivan, Museum Registrar, Arizona State University, anne.sullivan@asu.edu

á      Elizabeth Aldred, Assistant Registrar, The Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, ealdred@nrm.org

á      Suzanne Quigley, Head Registrar, Whitney Museum of American Art, suzanne_quigley@whitney.org

á      Gillian Nagler, Assistant Curator, The Currier Gallery of  Art, gnagler@currier.org

á      Devon L. Pyle-Vowles, Collections Manager, Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, also Vice Chair to the Board of the Registrars Committee, AAM, dpvowles@adlernet.org

á      Monica Wolf, Registrarial Assistant, The Cleveland Museum of  Art, mwolf@clevelandart.org

á      Jennifer Roy, Assistant Registrar, Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, roy.67@osu.edu

á      Claire Kelly, Exhibitions and Loans Coordinator, Smithsonian, National Portrait Gallery, kellyc@npg.si.edu

á      Jennifer Ickes, Rights and Reproductions, New Orleans Museum of Art, jickes@noma.org

á      Leslie Freund, Collections Manager, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, freund@uclink4.berkeley.edu

 

Please send any forms or in-formation you would like to see on this website to Suzanne Quigley.  She will update the site in the near future.  The registrar's listserv and the museum computer network listserv were also mentioned as good resources for those interested in rights and reproductions.

 

RARIN was formed several years ago and this is the 4th annual roundtable - an open forum for anyone interested in sharing information about rights and reproductions.  Last year copies of forms and a copyright policy draft from the Indianapolis Museum of Art were passed out.  These forms are available today.  If anyone would like a copy of the IMA's final and approved version of the intellectual property policy, please give Ruth your business card with email address.

 

Several future projects were discussed:

1.      The creation and publication of a handbook for rights and reproductions procedure

2.      The publishing of articles about the same

3.      The creation of a program for next year's AAM meeting in Portland - studying the possibility of bringing in guest speakers. 

4.      The updating of the Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum rights and reproductions survey from the mid-90's

5.      The continuation of this ad hoc forum at the Portland meeting next year

 

Discussion was opened up to the group and support was overwhelming for the creation a hand-book.  Two people, Jeanne Lil Chvosta and Elizabeth Aldred, volunteered to begin this project.  Vanessa Burkhart and Ruth Roberts will begin study for the new survey. 

Please feel free to email any of these people with ideas and/or assistance.  Also if you would like to help with a program for next year, please let Vanessa know.

 

Several other issues were brought up in general discussion.  Some could be addressed in the survey.

1.      Where should rights and reproductions reside in a museum?  Several departments were represented as homes for r&r including registration, curatorial, photo services.

2.      Would AAM sponsor another rights and reproductions seminar during 2003?  Several of us had attended previous seminars and found them to be quite helpful and a wonderful re-source for both new and experienced r&r administrators.

3.      Discussion of copyright and procedure for permissions when the institution does not own the copyright. 

4.      How do museums deal with works by contemporary artists when issuing permissions?

5.      How do we deal with clearing houses, rights groups, estates, living artists?  ARS, VAGA, VARA?

6.      Should we create our own listserv?  SFMOMA has a listserv we might want to look at.

7.      Outsourcing rights and reproductions

8.      Kelly vs. Arribasoft:  Thumbnails are considered fair use but there is no definition of "thumbnail"

9.      Permissions for non-standard forms - i.e. video and sound (through ASCAP, BMI?)

10.      Rights and reproductions modules in various collections management programs.  Collections by Vernon (?) was recommended.

11.      The standardization of digital images for various usages.  Suzanne will put the scanning manual from the Whitney up on the RARIN  website.

12.      Price lists and whether or not standardization of prices by museums is an issue 

 

Many questions were raised and this year we hope to be able to better answer them through a variety of projects.  Enthusiasm was particularly encouraging.

 

Ruth Roberts

Coordinator, Rights & Reproductions

Indianapolis Museum of Art

1200 West 38th Street

Indianapolis, Indiana 46208

317-923-1331 extension 171

fax: 317-926-8931

rroberts@ima-art.org