Reflections on Building Capacity and Strengthening Community: Warlayirti Art Centre & Warruyanta Art Centre

Warlayirti Art Centre and Warruyanta Art Centre are located in the south-east Kimberley, in the Kutjungka region of northern Western Australia. Warlayirti Artists is an established art centre in the Balgo community that represents over 200 artists, while Warruyanta Arts is a new art centre in nearby Mulan.

Just over a year ago now, with the generous support of Lander & Rogers, Arts Law visited both art centres as part of our Artists in the Black (AITB) outreach to remote First Nations communities. We met with the artists and art centre managers to advise on a range of issues, ultimately delivering legal advice to 22 people. Today, we continue to advise artists and art centre employees over the telephone and through email

During this outreach trip, Arts Law delivered workshops on artists’ rights to help artists better understand legal concepts such as copyright, including licensing and moral rights and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP). We held a workshop explaining Arts Law’s best practice template artist/art centre agreement and discussed a draft code of conduct to govern behaviour of artists and visitors to the art centre.  This helped the artists better understand the arrangement between them and the art centre and enabled the artists to contribute to the development of the code of conduct. 

Engaging with the artists, art centre staff and Board members was a productive and rewarding experience for all. One particularly touching moment occurred when assisting an artist with estates, as she smiled and told Arts Law, “You’re always good to me.”

Arts Law is grateful to Lander & Rogers for support during this trip and in an ongoing way for the centres. Along with the continued legal support that Arts Law provides, this relationship with a law firm will empower the art centres’ business and governance. If you or your firm are interested in supporting art centres and/or artists with Arts Law, please get in touch.

Lander & Rogers and Arts Law are proud to support the economic viability and legal empowerment of the Warlayirti and Warruyanta Art Centres and the artists they represent. By building the capacity of these centres to operate as robust, best-practice businesses, Arts Law aims to strengthen the Balgo and Mulan communities and increase productivity for the artists.