Certificates of Origin

A valuable reminder from CARFAC:

Don’t get stuck at the border because you waited until the last minute to get your paperwork. Planning ahead will make the process much smoother and save you a lot of stress.

Give yourself at least a month to be sure you have everything you need. If you will be paid for any service you provide while outside Canada, you need to apply several months in advance to get the proper visa.

• Certificates of Canadian Origin are for the process of returning artwork to Canada so you don’t need to pay GST on your work when they come back. These take two weeks plus shipping to be processed.
• Additional forms are often required to allow artwork to enter a foreign country, especially if the total value of the artwork that’s travelling is more than $2500. These also take a couple weeks or more.
• An information sheet about taking artwork over the border is available for CARFAC members.
• If you are travelling with your work, you may want to get an International Association of Art card that grants entry to many museums in Western Europe and elsewhere. IAA cards are available to CARFAC members only. More about the IAA card.

For more information visit the CARFAC website.

Serial Copyright Thief Serves Major Retailers

You've probably never heard of Cody Foster & Co. That doesn't matter, though, because if you're an independent artist, designer or illustrator, there's a good chance Cody Foster has heard of you. In fact, the company may already be selling works based upon your designs to retail clients such as Nordstrom, Madewell, Anthropologie, Terrain, and Fab.com. And, legally, there might not be a thing that anyone can do about it.


Read the whole article here.

Artist Resale Rights News (From CARFAC)

Ottawa, Thursday, May 30, 2013 - Support across parties is building in Ottawa for the Artist's Resale Right. NDP MP Pierre Nantel recently put a motion on the Order Paper of the House of Commons supporting the Artist's Resale Right and Liberal MP Scott Simms introduced a private member's bill yesterday. Some Conservative Members of Parliament have expressed their support to CARFAC for visual artists and the concept of the Artist's Resale Right. These include Gerald Keddy, Member of Parliament for South Shore - St. Margaret's.

The Artist Resale Right will give artists 5% from the resale of their work through auction houses and commercial galleries. It is common for visual art to appreciate in value over time, as the reputation of the artist grows. For example, acclaimed Montreal artist Marcel Barbeau gave a painting to a friend in the 1950s that resold in 2008 for $75,000. Barbeau didn't receive a penny from this sale.

"There's support from all over Canada, from North to South, to make sure Canadian artists can benefit from the resale of their works here and abroad," said Nantel. "Now we also have the support from MPs from across the political spectrum. Artist Resale Right exists in dozens of countries like France, the UK and Australia: now's the time to make it a reality in Canada." 

"At least 69 nations now provide compensation to artists as their works are sold," said Mr. Simms. "Sadly, Canada has no regime in place to provide fair compensation for Canadian artists and it is now time that we take our place. Like most other occupations, it is time for our artists to receive recognition for their vision, hard work, and dedication to their craft.

At the same time, support has been building among art market professionals. Earlier this month, Ritchies auction house announced that they would voluntarily pay the Artist's Resale Right starting with the inaugural Project Contemporalis in May.

"Auction houses have been profiting from the works of great Canadian artists without giving anything back for far too long," said Gordon Gothreau, head of Ritchies contemporary art department. "Canada must do more to protect its artists - granting artists resale rights is the first step on a long road."

URGENT: You can send a support email to your MP (if you are Canadian) by clicking here. Your MP is automatically selected for you so the process is very simple. 

Image from the blog "I Am Laura." Link. 

Art museums are changing their policies about the taking photographs of their collections.

But the ubiquity of digital cameras, along with the irrepressible urge to take pictures, has led many museums to revise their policies in recent years. American institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and the Getty Museum—to name a few—all allow photography in some or all of their permanent-collection spaces.

“You are fighting an uphill battle if you restrict,” says Nina Simon, director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History and author of The Participatory Museum. “Even in the most locked-down spaces, people will still take pictures and you’ll still find a million of these images online. So why not support it in an open way that’s constructive and embraces the public?”

 For contemporary artists, however, this change in policy presents a problem, as the article goes on to discuss:

The biggest hurdle to wide-open photo policies is the issue of copyright. Museums often do not hold the copyrights to the works they display, which creates legal problems when visitors start snapping away. According to Julie Ahrens, a lawyer who specializes in issues of copyright and fair use at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University, a photograph of an artwork could be considered a “derivative work,” which is “potentially a violation of the copyright holder.”

Read the full article at ArtNews.com here.