Celebrating Major Milestones for Our 40th Birthday

A green graphic which reads '15 to 24: Celebrating Major Milestones for Our 40th Birthday'

To celebrate our 40th birthday as Australia’s only national, community legal centre for the arts, Arts Law are running a series of fun facts counting from 1 to 40. In recent weeks we celebrated years 15 through to 24. Key achievements included:

Number 15: We reviewed 15 art prizes in 2023. This is an important part of Arts Law’s advocacy work. We recognise the importance competitions play in providing recognition and earned income to artists, however not all competitions are equal. Our reviews help artists understand what they agree to when they participate in a competition. If you have a competition you believe needs reviewing, contact us at [email protected]

Number 17: We have involved ourselves in the World Intellectual Property Organization for 17 years. Most recently this saw our Artists in the Black Coordinator, Jo-Anne Driessens, attending WIPO’s Intergovernmental Committee on Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Cultural Expressions, Genetic Resources and Folklore in Geneva. This was Jo-Anne’s third time attending as a delegate. The landmark result was a new, international treaty. WIPO describes the impact of the treaty:

Broadly, where a claimed invention in a patent application is based on genetic resources, each contracting party shall require applicants to disclose the country of origin or source of the genetic resources. Where the claimed invention in a patent application is based on traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, each contracting party shall require applicants to disclose the Indigenous Peoples or local community, as applicable, who provided the traditional knowledge.

Number 20: For half of Arts Law’s life, we have run our Artists in the Black service. That means 20 years of specialised, culturally-safe legal advice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. Our #FakeArtHarmsCulture campaign underscores the level of exploitation many First Nations artists experience, and Artists in the Black aims to end this through outreach, education, and accessible legal advice.

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