The plaintiff is artist Chapman Kelley, who created the Wildflower Works in Chicago’s Grant Park. His public art project, a 1.5-acre self-sustaining wildlife garden, designed to thrive without watering, fertilizer or insecticides, was intentionally destroyed by the Park District about five years ago. Alex Karan, Kelley’s lawyer, has taken this case pro bono because he worries that the district court “not only denies legal protection to any site-specific public art, but throws into question any artist’s rights,” says Deena Isaacs of the Chicago Reader. The Park District staff notified him, nearly 20 years after the work’s installation, that the garden would be replaced with a more grandiose and extravagant garden, nearing $700,000 in cost and who knows how much more in upkeep. Kelley was especially aggravated when the park did not even let him remove his artwork, to be able to install it somewhere else.
“His lawsuit charges the Park District with breach of contract and violation of his rights under the 1990 federal Visual Artists Rights Act. (The Park District did not return calls for comment.)…Under VARA, artists have the right to protect their work from modification or destruction no matter who owns it, and must be given 90 days to remove any piece that's threatened. But VARA defines an artwork as a painting, drawing, print, sculpture, or photograph original enough to qualify for copyright.”, says the Chicago Reader.
The works qualified as sculpture/drawing under the VARA act umbrella, much to Kelley and Karan’s relief. Ultimately, the court ruled in Kelley’s favor: “For each argument that the City lawyer raised, the court responded with one of the arguments that we had briefed and made clear that they thought the City was dead wrong.”
The Chicago Reader article also mentions Karan’s struggle with advanced cancer, which left him too weak to finish working on the case. The rest of the case was passed on to another young litigator from Kirkland and Ellis, Micah Marcus. The Reader links to Karan’s blog, akaran.wordpress.com, and gives regular updates on his condition.
For more information and detail on the Kelley case, visit the Reader web site
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In 2007 U.S. District Court Judge Coar ruled preliminarily in favor of Kelley. A final ruling in 2008 gave Kelley mixed results including allowing $1.00 nominal compensation. As of December 8, 2009 Case is pending, decision in imminent.
This article by Aurelie Frolet is significant because it brings the museum community into the discussion. Another important player in this discussion is Heather Hope Stephens. She wrote her masters thesis "Visualizing the Path Forward: The VARA of 1990 and Recommendations for a Response by American Museums".
In Mass MoCA Vs. Christoph Buchel--another seminal VARA case--artists rights are being defended.
For more information visit www.chapmankelley.com artists' rights advocacy tab.
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