Drawing up a contract

Once you have selected your artist it is useful to have a pre-contract meeting with them to agree their detailed project proposal and clarify any outstanding issues. The next stage is to agree in detail the roles and responsibilities of all parties to ensure that the project is of high quality and is delivered on time and in budget.
A contract should reflect the important aspects of all the discussions and agreements that have taken place to ensure clarity over the delivery of the project and prevent misunderstanding and unexpected changes to the project.  Due to the unique nature of each project it is not possible to have a completely standard contract however there will be some aspects of the contract that will always be the same.   In any contract you need to make sure that you include the core legal requirements, including copyright, child protection issues, insurance and cancellation. Further information on copyright is available from

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/information-sheet/copyright/

 

A contract also needs to include a schedule of work. This will be largely based on the information contained within the project brief and should include:

• What the artist has been contracted to do
• The nature of the work
• Who will be responsible for engaging and involving participants
• Project management arrangements including:
- contact details for the project manager
- dates for review meetings
• A timetable of the project
• Project fee
• Payment schedule – it is usual for artists to be paid in stages

Click here to see a copy of the artist contract for Kick Ash arts and health project.