Focus On The Bottom Line
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John ffrench, Associate Director for Visual Resources at Yale University Art Gallery PowerPoint presentation as part of MCN 2009 workshop entitled: Focus on the Bottom Line.
![Focus on the Bottom Line: Image Licensing for Sustainability ,[object Object],Author : Updated : John ffrench 08/08/2008 Museum Computer Network, 2009 Workshop Wednesday, 11 November - 9:ooam-1230pm](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/focusonthebottomlinewednesdayppt-091209143742-phpapp01/85/focus-on-the-bottom-line-1-320.jpg)
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Focus On The Bottom Line
- 2. Focus on the Bottom Line: Brief history . . Yale University Art Gallery ◆ The Yale University Art Gallery’s permanent collection includes over 185,000 works, organized into ten curatorial areas. The Yale University Art Gallery is the oldest university art museum in the western hemisphere. 1926 1832 - 1901 1953
- 3. Focus on the Bottom Line: Web presence . . Yale University Art Gallery
- 4. Focus on the Bottom Line: Art Resource (North American market) . . Art Resource ( http://www.artres.com ) ◆ Art Resource generates an average of $15,000/yr for the Gallery Yale University Art Gallery
- 5. Focus on the Bottom Line: Scala Archives (European market) . . Scala Archives (http://www.scalarchives.it) ◆ Scala generates an average of $4,200/yr for the Gallery Yale University Art Gallery
- 6. Focus on the Bottom Line: DNP Art Communications (Asia market) . . DNP Art Communications (http://search.dnparchives.com/) ◆ DNP generates an average of $1,500/yr for the Gallery Yale University Art Gallery
- 7. Focus on the Bottom Line: DNP Art Communications (Asia market) . . DNP Art Communications (http://search.dnparchives.com/) Yale University Art Gallery
- 8. Focus on the Bottom Line Conclusions . . ◆ 3rd party relationships can take time to initiate, but long-term maintenance is minimal and a simple revenue stream ◆ Initial planning can be time-intensive but successive relationships can and should be built on successes and failures of past relationships ◆ Document, document, document ◆ Share, share, share! Yale University Art Gallery
Editor's Notes
- My name is John ffrench and I am the Associate Director for the Visual Resources department at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven Connecticut. I oversee the both the photography and the Rights and Reproductions departments which 4 years ago were brought under one umbrella. Since that merge and change in oversight we have made several changes in the ways in which we make our images accessible for scholarly study, publication and commercial usage.
- Our Rights and Reproductions staff facilitate all requests which are received via our Gallery website forms for Research, Scholarly and Commercial purposes. Internally, of the requests we receive roughly 85% of them are for Scholarly/Academic purposes, in part because for research purposes we now charge no fees for our images. Due to the overall demand we made the decision in 2007 to form a working relationship with Art Resource based in NYC to handle the commercial requests for just over 600 of our more popular images. in 2008 we were approached by Scala images in Italy and now share the same images with them. This past year we formed a relationship with DNP Art Communications in Japan. All told, with our percentage cut, the three companies generate just over $20,000 income for us, which requires minimal work on our part
- Initial contact with company, discussions with internal staff and curators, checking with existing clients to see if they are happy, writing of contract and endless back and forth between legal departments, selections of images and data scrubbing of text exports. All told it took us more than a year of contract negotiation and image approval/prep, in part due to Yale’s legal council department needing to review the contract and making alterations. If working with multiple companies, you need to ensure that there is not conflict of contract or interest (eg. working with Bridgeman and Art Resource is not something either wants to do since they are competitors) Art Resource relationship began in 2007 and has be a wonderful working relationship. We have a 60/40 split with them which fell outside of the normal contract the negotiate with clients.
- Scala maintains a 50/50 ratio with the Gallery, our arrangement is that all finances are handles through Art Resource. Art Resource and Scala both send us quarterly statements via e-mail in a format that allows for us to ingest the information back into our Collections databse system for bibliographic record. In addition Art Resource sends us two checks and paper statements each quarter for both Scala and Art Resource image sales. Our contract states that both companies only need to contact us regarding requests under certain circumstances (book covers, merchandise and such), otherwise they operate independently of us which is beneficial time-wise to the client, the vendor and us.
- In January of 2009 we entered into agreement with DNP. DNP represents Japan in the use of our images. This contract negotiation process took much less time due to our previous work with Art Resource and Scala. With DNP, we have a 60/40 split agreement with the Gallery. Unlike Art Resource and Scala we receive inquires for each request and must approve them before they fulfill their client order (this was at the request of DNP and is done via e-mail), DNP each quarter sends us a sales report listing each client and the amount garnered in Yen. We must then submit an invoice to them in U.S. dollars and provide SWIFT bank information for them to make payment. While it has been working well, these are extra steps that must be factored into our routines.
- One unique aspect we’ve encountered in working with DNP is that all of their public material is provided in Japanese Kanji. Fortunately our Gallery has a curator of Japanese Art who kindly has provided translation for us as needed. The image shown here is an example of a press release we were sent for approval. While I could easily approve the visual layout or use of images, the text had to be translated first for us. I will note that all of our correspondence with DNP has been in English and has provided no problems. When you do begin to work with foreign companies, you have to have a means of adapting to these situations, or work it into your contract that they provide the service (such as translation) for you.
- 1. We generate about $21,000 annually with these relationships, and are looking at the possibility of adding one more for S. America representation. (Internally our staff generate about $35,000 in sales). Currently we share just over 600 of our more popular images with all three companies however we are now looking at ways to efficiently deliver more of our images to the companies on a regular basis, this will most likely be solved with a new DAM system we are implementing which will allow for data/image harvesting. 2. As I stated earlier, our first contract process took nearly a year to work through, subsequent contracts have been significantly reduces largely due to working off our previous contract(s), and also we are delivering the same set of images to each organization so the internal approval process is streamlined. 3. I would encourage you all to document your process, contracts and receipts for internal purposes, when one person leaves an organization it is easy to lose the knowledge that they have. 4. Openly share your resources with colleagues. We are all in this together.
- With that being said, on the screen is the contact information for myself and the staff working in our Rights and Reproductions offices at the Gallery. I’d be happy to meet with people after this talk and show or share our contracts procedures, reports, and statements. Additionally please feel free to contact Kathleen or David with and R&R questions. They are in the trenches every day and happy to share their advice.