Mentoring Agreement

This template Mentoring Agreement should be used when a person agrees to mentor another person (the ‘Mentee’) by acting as a guide, teacher, editor or dramaturg in the development of any art form including literary, dramatic or artistic work (with some necessary changes).

This sample agreement envisages the situation where the Mentee will have a work in progress. The Mentor will be helping the Mentee get the work to the next stage of their creative journey.

This sample agreement operates on the basis that the Mentee will be the copyright owner of the work. The role of the Mentor is to give instruction, feedback and notes on the work to guide the Mentee in the creation of the work. Therefore this sample agreement is not suitable for use when the relationship is a collaboration between the two people where they intend to share the ownership of the copyright in the work.

The Arts Law website has template collaboration agreements for situations in which work is developed via collaboration between parties who own joint copyright in the work. See Arts Law Collaboration Agreement. See also Arts Law Collaboration Agreement – Fashion and Furnishings which addresses situations in which designers wish to work with Indigenous artists to produce clothing, textiles or furnishings incorporating artworks by the artists.

For literary works subject to joint authorship, the Australian Society of Authors has a template co-ownership agreement package available for purchase. See ASA Joint Authorship Agreement Package.