Images of Works of Art in Museum Collections: The Experience of Open Access A Study of 11 Museums Prepared for The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation by Kristin Kelly June 2013 COUNCIL ON LIBRARY AND INFORMATION RESOURCES Images of Works of Art in Museum Collections: The Experience of Open Access A Study of 11 Museums Prepared for The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation by Kristin Kelly June 2013 COUNCIL ON LIBRARY AND INFORMATION RESOURCES ISBN 978-1-932326-45-1 CLIR Publication No. 157 Published by: Council on Library and Information Resources 1707 L Street NW, Suite 650 Washington, DC 20036 Web site at http://www.clir.org Copyright © 2013 by Council on Library and Information Resources. This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Cover photo: © shutterstock.com/Reeed iii Contents About the Author .....................................................iv Acknowledgments . iv Executive Summary ....................................................1 Introduction ...........................................................2 Study Rationale ...................................................3 Prior Studies......................................................3 Current State of Discussion and Practice...................................5 Practices at Museums in the Study........................................7 Los Angeles County Museum of Art .................................9 National Gallery of Art............................................10 Yale University Art Museums ......................................11 Metropolitan Museum of Art . 14 The British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum .............14 Walters Art Museum .............................................16 Indianapolis Museum of Art .......................................18 Morgan Library and Museum ......................................19 J. Paul Getty Museum .............................................20 Museum Experiences with Open Access..................................20 Catalysts ........................................................20 Process and Decision Making ......................................22 Overcoming Concerns ............................................23 Outcomes .......................................................24 Key Findings .........................................................25 Bibliography .........................................................30 Works Cited .....................................................30 Further Readings .................................................31 Appendix A: Survey Questionnaire ......................................32 Appendix B: List of Participating Museums and Summaries of Their Terms and Conditions of Image Use .........................34 iv About the Author Kristin Kelly is a freelance museum professional and writer based in San Diego. Prior to becoming an independent contractor, she spent nine years as the manager of administration at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and nine years overseeing public programming and communications at the Getty Conservation Institute. She has done freelance projects for foundations in the United States and worked for the government of Punjab State, India, for two years. She conducts ongoing research on art and architecture in Southeast Asia, and lectures on trips to the region. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College with an A.B. in History of Art, and earned a Ph.D. in Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University. Acknowledgments Many professionals in the field were of assistance in shaping this survey and in helping me understand the rapidly changing world of image rights. I would like to acknowledge their contributions, but take complete responsibil- ity for any errors or lack of clarity in this report. For direction and guidance, and assistance with introductions and thought process, I would like to thank the staff of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mariët Westermann, Helen Cullyer, Alison Gilchrest, and espe- cially Donald Waters, to whom I am indebted. Nancy Allen, Meg Bellinger, Susan Bielstein, Patricia Fidler, Kenneth Hamma, Christine Kuan, Max Marmor, Virginia Rutledge, Gary Vikan, Günter Waibel, Maureen Whalen, Deborah Wythe, and Diane Zorich all helped define the parameters of the study, gave solid background informa- tion, and asked thought-provoking questions. Janet Bridgland was a great help with editing and organization. I would like to thank the following staff at the museums participating in this survey, all of whom were very patient and forthcoming with answers to my many questions: at the British Museum in London, Andrew Burnett; at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Anne Young, Jennifer Anderson, and Kathryn Haigh; at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the J. Paul Getty Trust, Sally Hibbard, Thomas Stewart, Cherie Chen, Jackie Burns, Monique Stover, and Darcy Estes Pinelo; at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Nancy Thomas, Fred Goldstein, and Amy Heibel; at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carrie Rebora Barratt, Erin Coburn, Cristina del Valle, Peggy Hebard, Claire Dienes, Julie Zeftel, and Shyam Oberoi; at the Morgan Library and Museum, Robert Parks and Marilyn Palmeri; at the National Gallery of Art, Alan Newman; at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Jo Prosser and Olivia Stroud; at the Walters Art Museum, James Maza, Kate Blanch, and Dylan Kinnett; at the Yale Center for British Art, Amy Meyers, Matthew Hargraves, and Melissa Fournier; and at the Yale University Art Gallery, Pamela Franks and John ffrench. 1 Executive Summary n December 2009, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation organized a meeting of museum directors to discuss open access to images of Iworks of art in their collections. This meeting was seen as a cata- lyst for further high-level discussion on the topic; it also prompted several of the museums present to investigate issues surrounding open access. The author of this study was subsequently commissioned by the Mellon Foundation in November of 2011 to research, via their web- sites, the image-access policies and processes of almost 50 museums in the United States and the United Kingdom. In collaboration with Mellon staff, the author narrowed the number of museums to be sur- veyed in depth to the 11 institutions cited in this report and devel- oped a questionnaire (Appendix A) that was sent to each museum. The questionnaire formed the framework for in situ discussions that were held in May and June of 2012. In some cases, the author met with just one member of staff. In others, a group of staff responsible for various aspects of the museum’s work took part in the discus- sions. The information sought related to the museum’s policy on im- age rights, how and why the museum had arrived at this approach, any key changes resulting from the policy, and the implications of such changes. The author also met or spoke with a number of experts in the field, all of whom are acknowledged at the beginning of this report. This report describes the current approaches of 11 art museums in the United States and the United Kingdom to the use of images of works of art that are in their collections and are in the public do- main. Each approach is slightly different. By presenting the thought processes and methods used in these institutions, this report aims to inform the decision making of other museums that are considering open access to images in their collections. Following are the key findings presented in this report: • Providing open access is a mission-driven decision. • Different museums look at open access in different ways. • Internal process is important. • Loss of control fades as a concern. • Technology matters. • Revenue matters less than many institutions think it does. • Change is good. 2 Kristin Kelly Introduction This report describes the current approaches of 11 art museums in the United States and the United Kingdom to the use of images from their collections, when the underlying works are in the public domain. A work is considered to be in the public domain when it is not under copyright for one of several reasons: It may never have been under copyright; it may have passed out of copyright; or rights to claim copyright in the work may have been forfeited. Also, works created by the U.S. government do not have copyright protection. Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines “public domain” as “the condition of being free from copyright or patent and, hence, open to use by anyone.”1 The following museums are included in this study: • British Museum, London • Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis • J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles • Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles • Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York • Morgan Library and Museum, New York • National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. • Victoria and Albert Museum, London • Walters Art Museum, Baltimore • Yale Center for British Art, New Haven • Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven Each museum has taken a slightly different approach to making images of the works in its collection more openly accessible. Within this group, some have been leaders in putting high-resolution digital files of works of art in their collection online for use by anyone for any purpose. Others have a highly refined “fee and free” system that adroitly mixes revenue generation with the promotion of scholarship by licensing the images for commercial use, while giving them away for academic and scholarly use. Still others evaluate each request on its individual merits. Some are committed