Rebecca Belmore is one of Canada’s most important contemporary artists working today. She is at the center of a court case that is dealing with the rights artists have to their work once it enters the commercial gallery system.
I want to inform you of what is to happen in London on Thursday December 8 2011.
London, Ontario based-artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner proposed to Rebecca Belmore a billboard project. The unveiling of this project is happening on Thursday December 8, and everyone is invited! To begin at 6:30 pm, people will meet at the corner of Ridout and York St.
Later in the evening, Jamelie Hassan, Ron Benner and Rebecca Belmore will be in attendance for a concurrent event hosted by LOLA at Museum London.
I am not very legally minded nor do I know the correct legal terminology to use to tell you about the situation, I therefore, wrote to Randall Gray of the Rebecca Belmore Legal Fund and to Jamelie Hassan, one of the coordinators of this independent billboard project for LOLA 2011.
Rebecca Belmore Legal Fund: Randall Gray shared with me his personal opinion.
How are the rights of Canadian artists at risk if the court does not decide in Rebecca's favour?
There is a chance that once decided in Court, Rebecca's case could become a "precedent" for later cases involving similar facts and issues. In other cases where artists and their dealers have similar disagreements, either the artist or the dealer could point to Rebecca's case as the precedent that would decide their own case. If the Court supports the gallery's argument that only the gallery can end a contractual arrangement – not the artist, then other dealers may use this precedent to their advantage and the rights of artists would be diminished.
If the courts do decide in her favour how will this better the situation for Canadian artists?
The legal precedent would confirm that both artists and dealers are on an equal footing in contract law, and that a gallery's unilateral expectation of 'future revenues' is not a valid constraint on the artist in all artist/dealer agreements.
Why do you think the courts have allowed for this to go on?
Unfortunately, delays (adjournments) are very common in civil cases. This is one method by which the party with the more resources (i.e. money, power, time, corporate or establishment lawyers over independent or small firm lawyers, etc.) can exhaust the resources of the weaker party. There is typically a considerable power imbalance between dealers and artists that often results in artists capitulating to dealers in any legal dispute. Without the help of other artists and many sympathetic supporters, Rebecca would have not been able to fight this lawsuit for almost five years
What steps can be taken to ensure a gallery holds up their ends of contracts so that we can better protect the livelihoods of artists?
Artists want to have their work displayed, and they want to make money, and they often don't like the business side of art. As a consequence, artists are often overly anxious to be represented by dealers and they don't take steps to protect themselves. Dealers sometimes take advantage of artists and in any conflict it is usually the dealer that has the advantage of lawyers, more money and more credibility with the Courts.
Artists have to better protect themselves to "level the playing field". Here are three important steps to consider:
The first is to ensure that artists only enter into agreements that are defined in legally binding, written contracts. Far too many artists and dealers rely on 'handshake' agreements. Some dealers actually refuse to employ contracts – artists should strictly avoid this kind of arrangement. Should the artist / dealer relationship come into dispute, an oral agreement is of little use to the artist and the dealer almost always prevails in a legal battle. CARFAC has developed a legal contracts resource guide that is designed to help artists protect their rights (http://www.carfacontario.ca/~carfacon/services/books/ac).
Step two is for artists to be more actively aware of, and participate in, the business aspects of their relationship with dealers. Far too often artists rely on their dealer to take care of all that 'unpleasantness' related to the business of art. This deliberate detachment and ignorance of the business side of art puts artists in a vulnerable position should their dealer be less than ethical.
Step three: artists should be selective about the dealers they work with. The vast majority of dealers are honest business people and many are members of professional associations that set a high standard for ethics. Artists should likely only support dealers that are members in good standing of reputable professional associations (one such example is the Art Dealers Association of Canada http://www.ad-ac.ca/). Before doing business with a dealer, artists should ask around to determine whether that dealer has a good reputation among other artists. Too often, artists ignore or discount information that other artists have been 'screwed over' by the dealer in the past.
The second part of the interview was conducted with Jamelie Hassan:
If the courts do decide in her favour how will this better the situation for Canadian artists?
If Rebecca and her lawyer get this case resolved in her favour it should demonstrate that the commercial dealer has to be ethical in their dealings with artists. That artists should have the right to end their contractual agreement if they so desire. In many situations, we have seen that the gallery dealer can end their relationship with an artist without impunity at any time.
What steps can be taken to ensure a gallery holds up their ends of contracts so that we can better protect the livelihoods of artists?
I do not have much experience with commercial galleries – but I do comprehend when something is happening that is unfair and unreasonable to the situation of the artist. Artists need to have the courage to challenge unfair situations that arise between commercial galleries and artists – as Rebecca Belmore has done, at great cost to her creative work. I think the commercial art world in general is difficult to comprehend - the value of the artist’s work is not reflected in the financial transactions. Only rarely does that happen.
Why London? How do you connect with Rebecca Belmore's story?
Certainly, London, Ontario is a city whose history of activism has many examples – one obvious & relevant example is in the establishing of CARFAC- founded here in this city of London by Jack Chambers and other artists in 1968. Speaking out for the rights of artists and recognizing the value of our work was at the centre of this initiative that is today a national organization whose advocacy for the rights of artists has had an enormous influence. London’s early establishment of artist-run centres as well, is also part of this community’s cultural history, such as former artist initiatives, Region Gallery and 20-20 Gallery in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and Embassy Cultural House in 1980’s. The Forest City Gallery, founded in 1973, will be celebrating 40 years in 2013 which is an accomplishment for an alternative artist-run centre in Canada. All these efforts are part of what artists have done in the past to support each other.
To your knowledge, is London the first city outside of Vancouver which has offered support in this way?
Other communities across Canada have given support, besides Vancouver, both Toronto & Montreal have done support projects. BUT this is the first time though that the billboard format has been presented. The text for the billboard is based on a placard Rebecca used in her performance at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
How did you come to decide on a billboard project?
Ron Benner and I met up with Rebecca Belmore at the recent Aboriginal Curatorial Collective Conference held at OCAD in Toronto. It was Ron who suggested to Rebecca that we could do a billboard of the placard. On our return to London from Toronto we followed up & I sent out an email basically informing a few people we knew of the need to do something to give support to Rebecca at this crucial time. The response was very good.
Paul Walde and Andrew Francis saw this as an opportunity for LOLA to get involved. Andrew proposed the project be a LOLA independent project for 2012. Ron & I are the coordinators as you know & took on the responsibilities that entails.
Rebecca Belmore's performance outside the Vancouver Art Gallery 2010
Please come and support Rebecca Belmore! For more information visit http://rebeccabelmorelegalfund.com/
The event taking place at Museum London can be found here: http://londonfuse.ca/event/lola-2011-we-thank-you-we-party
This interview was Conducted by the FCG Intern: Jennifer Lorraine Fraser
Read more on the FCG intern's blog at: http://fcgintern.blogspot.com/
Comments
Thanks for liking this, my last little blog post from the fall!! I have now found my way to LondonFuse. This is exciting!!
I loved this project. Thanks for sharing some of the background on this Jennifer.