Education
Lectures & Workshops:
VLA plays an important role in educating individual artists, arts professionals within arts and cultural institutions, attorneys, students and the general public about legal and business issues that affect artistic and creative endeavors.
Each year, VLA reaches more than 5,000 people through in-house workshops; speaking engagements in the five boroughs and around the state; appearances at national conferences; radio and television appearances; VLA’s in-office resource library; teaching engagements at local colleges and law schools; and a Speakers Bureau that assists arts and cultural organizations to secure experienced legal speakers for their own events.
Our Department of Education offers a wide variety of discipline-specific and general educational programs, both at its office and privately on location for law firms and art, cultural and service organizations. VLA is also certified by the New York State Bar Continuing Legal Education Board as an accredited provider of Continuing Legal Education courses and programs. Accordingly, VLA provides CLE classes at its office, and privately for law firms at their offices. VLA also custom designs courses, including CLE classes, upon request.
To arrange for VLA to present educational programming to your constituents, members or employees, please contact VLA's Associate Director, Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento at 212.319.2787, ext. 13.
The following topics can be presented as lectures or workshops, and can take place at the VLA offices or your location, during lunchtime, evening, or weekends.
- Nonprofit Incorporation and Tax-exempt Status
- Nonprofit Boards: Legal and Fiduciary Duties
- Fiscal Sponsorships: Fundraising for Artistic Projects
- Contract Essentials for Visual and Performing Artists
- Choosing the Right Corporate Structure For Your Arts Business: Sole-proprietorship, partnership, LLC or Corporation
- Managers and Agents in the Performing & Entertainment Industry
- Film School for Attorneys: Produce, Write & Direct Independent Feature Films
- Legal & Ethical Issues in the Music Industry
- Intellectual Property Basics (copyrights, trademarks, VARA)
- Legal Issues in Dance (including ownership of choreography)
- Legal Issues Interactive Media (video gaming, blogs, websites)
- Employment Issues: Employee and Independent Contractor Status
- Taxes and Financial Planning for Artists
- Legal & Ethical Issues in Film making
- Legal Issues in Contemporary Art
- Art and The First Amendment: Free Speech, Defamation, Privacy, Right of Publicity
- Institutional Advancement and Grant-Writing for Nonprofit Arts Organizations
- Common Ethical Issues in Nonprofits
- Visual Culture and Law (advertising, architecture, film, design, visual art)
- Legal Ethics Through Law and Film: CLE
Selected locations where VLA has presented lectures, workshops, or VLA Bootcamps™:
artHARLEM
Bronx Museum
Bronx Museum AIM Program
Brooklyn Arts Council
Brooklyn Law School
College Art Association
Columbia Law School
Columbia University School of the Arts
Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington
D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities
Dance/NYC
Dia:Beacon
Harlem Arts Alliance
Harvard Law School
Hofstra University, Department of Department of Fine Arts, Art History and Humanities
Independent Press Association
International Center for Photography
Jack the Pelican Presents Gallery
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Department of Art, Music & Philosophy
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
New York Foundation for the Arts
New York Public Library
New York State Bar Association, Entertainment Arts and Sports Law Section
New York University
Parsons The New School for Design
Polytechnic University/NYU
Pratt Institute
Queensborough Community College-CUNY
School of Visual Arts
Six Points Fellowship
South by Southwest
Staten Island Arts Council
The Juilliard School
Theater Resources Unlimited (NYC)
Westport Country Playhouse
Yale School of Management
Law School Application Mentoring for Artists :
Believe it or not a number of artists also have a viable legal practice. In fact, an increasing number of visual and performing artists are attending law school and working in both law-related and non-law-related fields, not only as a way of furthering their social and artistic beliefs, but also as a means of supporting their own artistic practices. If you’re a visual or performing artist and have thought about attending law school and becoming a lawyer, VLA offers mentoring and advising sessions to help you with this decision as well as help you organize your application strategies. The mentoring will be conducted by Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento, Esq, VLA's Director of Education, Senior Staff Attorney, and practicing artist. This mentoring program is open to all visual and performing artists. For more information, please contact Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento, Esq., at 212.319.2787 x13, or via e-mail.
Since 2005, a VLA program about the legal and business issues that affect individual artists and individuals within arts organizations and cultural institutions. Law students, attorneys and other professionals who represent artists may also benefit from this program. VLA has offered the program in venues around the United States. For additional information about the boot camp please click here.
VLA at South by Southwest 2009 (SXSW)
VLA staff attorneys were present at this year's SXSW Festival. Elena M. Paul, Esq., participated in the "How to Protect Your Mark Without Being a Jerk!" panel on Monday, March 16th. The panel focused on strategies for protecting artistic works made available online, as well as legal means to borrowing and licensing artworks. Additionally, she and Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento answered questions from the 220+ film, music, and interactive attendees present at this panel.
VLA's Executive Director, Elena M. Paul (second from right), enlightening the crowd!
Power Point presentation with presenters