National Network of Legal Clinics for the Arts Releases Report on Legal Challenges Facing Arts Workers
/The following is excerpted from a release issued by Pacific Legal Education and Outreach Society.
The National Network of Legal Clinics for the Arts, a group comprised of members of existing Canadian pro-bono legal clinics, has announced the release of a pressing report housing significant new research on the multitude of legal challenges facing individuals working in the Canadian arts sector - accelerated to critical levels due to the devastating impact of COVID-19. Entitled Now More Than Ever: Towards a National Network of Legal Clinics for the Arts, the report highlights gaps in legal needs, legal literacy and education, and protections that are taking dramatic tolls on a sector whose earnings were already near poverty levels prior to the pandemic.
“The legal needs sought by artists and arts organizations are incredibly specialized,” says Martha Rans, Legal Director of Artists’ Legal Outreach (ALO) in Vancouver - one of three clinics currently a part of the emerging national network. “Most artists have difficulty navigating complex contracts and copyright issues - they find their work taken without permission and often don’t know where to turn. Since the COVID-19 crisis began, we have heard from a number of artists left out in the cold when a gallery is closed without notice, agreements cancelled without compensation, and commercial tenancies in jeopardy (including the closure of artist studios with less than 30 days notice).”
Now More Than Ever was born from a national legal Needs Assessment study, which surveyed more than 1,150 Canadian artists, arts organizations, and legal experts working in the sector and included a series of focus groups. The findings show that 94% of artists feel strongly they are facing unique legal needs. The vast majority also feel strongly they lack information and training on the legal issues related to their work, and have inadequate access to legal services.
The research data revealed several recurring themes and areas of particular need, including:
Copyright, with individual artists ranking this as their most urgent concern - in particular in emerging digital spaces - and arts organizations identifying it as #2 (behind Contracts);
Indigenous Artists face unique subsets of challenges, including the ubiquity of cultural appropriation;
Geographic limitations, the six existing legal clinics primarily operate in urban centres, which makes their services essentially inaccessible to a significant proportion of the artistic population who would use such services.
Now More Than Ever: Towards a National Network of Legal Clinics for the Arts was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the department of Canadian Heritage. The full report can be viewed and downloaded here.
