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Our lawyers are deeply involved
with the arts on both a
professional and a personal level. They advise visual artists,
musicians and filmmakers, as well as arts organizations, on
intellectual property matters and in contract negotiations and business
matters of all kinds.
For 15 years Arnold
Lutzker has been general counsel for the Cultural Alliance of
Greater Washington. In this capacity he has helped to guide the
organization through major expansions of its activities, including the
creation and expansion of its popular TicketPlace, negotiation and
documentation of its leases, union negotiations, and health insurance
for member organizations. He is also a board member of Filmfest DC,
Washington, DC's annual international film festival. www.filmfestdc.org
Our attorneys regularly teach courses on
copyright, trademark and nonprofit law for Washington Area
Lawyers for the Arts
(WALA)
- a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which provides education, advocacy
and volunteer legal services through workshops and seminars, legal
clinics for artists and arts organizations, and pro-bono referral
services. Arnold Lutzker and Susan Lutzker were
principal organizers of the major international art exhibition, Palace
of Gold & Light: Treasures from the Topkapi, Istanbul, which
toured the United States during 2000-2001. Mr. Lutzker served as legal
counsel to the sponsoring Palace Arts Foundation, chaired by Richard C.
Barkley, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, which was created to promote
international understanding through the arts. Mr. Lutzker's
responsibilities included negotiating and drafting the governing
protocol with the Government of Turkey and the agreements with the
venue museums. Ms. Lutzker worked with the exhibition consultants,
vendors, and licensees in connection with the exhibition and related
fund-raising, public affairs, merchandising and publishing activities.
The exhibition and its catalog received critical praise and was seen by
150,000 visitors in Washington DC at the Corcoran Gallery, at the San
Diego Museum of Art and at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale.
According to the Embassy of Turkey, the exhibition contributed to a 27%
increase in tourism to Turkey during 2000.
Arnold
Lutzker also served as special legal advisor to the American
Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation and helped organize the
exhibition, JEWELS OF THE ROMANOVS: Treasures of the Russian
Imperial Court. The Exhibition successfully toured five U.S.
cities and attracted almost three-quarters of a million visitors at the
Corcoran Gallery in Washington, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the
San Diego Museum of Art, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, and the
Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Allison
Rapp also has a background in the music industry, particularly in
media and marketing.
- Helping a sculptor determine her rights under
the Visual Artists Rights Act and common law to prevent destruction of
her sculpture following sale.
- Representing a sculptor in a claim that
copyrights in her life-size works were infringed by an art and antiques
distributor.
- Resolving complex multiparty copyright
ownership issues and drafting creative licensing agreements for a video
photographer.
- Counseling a painter on licensing reproduction
rights to a publisher.
- Settling claims regarding the allocation of merchandise revenue
to the organizer of a national touring art exhibition.
- Drafting agreements with a guest curator, foreign government lender and U.S.
venues for a new art exhibition.
- Representing a USA Today freelance photographer in copyright infringement claims.
- Securing registration for outdoor sculptural work and encrypted code after initial Copyright Office refusal.
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