This template Collaboration Agreement – Fashion and Furnishings should be used when a designer in the fashion, textile or home furnishing industry, or a business that is involved in the production of articles for the fashion and furnishing industries (the Designer) wishes to work together with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island visual artist/ or group of visual artists (the Artist) to create and produce clothing, textiles and/or furnishing items based on or incorporating or inspired by the artworks of that artist or artists.
Note that this agreement is between the Artist and the Designer. If the Artist is a member of an Indigenous Art Centre which acts as the Artist’s agent in relation to these types of agreements, then it is appropriate for the Agreement to be entered into between the Art Centre and the Designer instead. Contact Arts Law for assistance to determining what changes need to be made to this Agreement in that case.
If the Designer wants to create items which simply reproduce an existing Artwork by the Artist in some way – such as reproducing a painting or drawing onto a panel of a dress – Arts Law’s template Copyright Licence Agreement – Fabric might be more appropriate to use. Likewise, if the Designer wishes to enter into an agreement to commission the Artist the create a particular artwork as opposed to working with the Artist in a creative collaboration, Arts Law’s template Commission Agreements (Public and Private) may be useful. Another way to organise and manage the collaborative relationship would be to enter into a partnership agreement.
This Agreement assumes that the Designer will pay the Artist to participate in the Collaboration. If the parties are jointly engaging in the Collaboration, and sharing costs and sharing profits, then a partnership agreement is more appropriate.
This template agreement includes the most common terms that the parties need to consider and agree to.
This agreement is also available as part of our Copyright Licence Toolkit – Art Centres.
