Art Workshops - November 2011

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Category: Student Art

Published on Monday, 06 February 2012 00:00

Written by WAN - Art in the Community

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Hallen School is located in the North end of the city of Bridgeport, Conn. It serves approximately 380 students each year Pre-K to 6th grade, with a limited budget for the Arts as most public schools in the city, and only half an hour of art instruction per week per group.

While Hallen School has risen to the challenge of improving test scores for their students, classroom sizes, socioeconomic difficulties and budget cuts continue to limit the children's access to high quality Arts programs. It is our hope that through our free art workshops we may be able to assist them in bridging those gaps and encourage children to believe in their potential, their ability to succeed, and the importance of learning in the context of their lives and what they find relevant.

In November 2011, we conducted a workshop with a group of 6th graders based on Edvard Munch's piece "The Scream." They had knowledge of the piece, and we gave them a little bit of history for them to be able to place the art and the artist within a historical context. With the aid of an article published by CNN in their Science and Space section (http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/12/10/scream.munch.reut/) we shared with the group the scientific reason why the sky is thought to have been actually colored red around the time Munch painted this piece.

Edvard Munch - The Scream 1893.

This painting by Edvard Munch is in the public domain in the United States because it was first published more than 95 
years ago. The painting is protected by copyright in Norway until 2015 (the life of the  author + 70 years). The painting may 
also be covered by copyright in the countries of the European Union.

After sharing with them this historical tidbit, we asked what they thought made the main figure in the painting want to scream. They were very insightful in their answers, considering the factor of the volcanic explosion as causing uncertainty and  concern.

Then we asked them about the things that made them want to "scream" - not people, but things - and got various responses from spiders to snakes, and from crime to the loss of loved ones. We sometimes think that kids have the advantage of living in their own little world of fantasy and play - but they showed a level of awareness about their surroundings and the reality around them that some may think beyond their years.

The process was cathartic, and once we shared respectfully what each one feared, and allowed everyone a turn to express these things without anyone judging, we asked them to draw their own "Scream" figure and surround it of the things that scared them instead. This way, but putting them on paper and sharing them with others, they would be a little less frightening and as a group they would all become more connected in the process.

Here are pictures of the works they came up with:

For more information on Hallen School, please visit their website and CT School Tree.

For information on our Art in the Community program, or to become a volunteer please visit Our Programs page.

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Photography, Copyright, and "Derivative Works"

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Category: Photography

Published on Thursday, 27 May 2010 14:20

Written by Michael Kahn

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Photography, Copyright, and "Derivative Works"

Posted on November 13, 2009 by Michael Kahn

Mark Twain channeled the frustration of many artists when he wrote, “Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.” One such frustration is the realm of derivative works. Artists understand that all art is ultimately derivative. For example, Ernest Hemingway wrote, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.”

But copyright law takes a narrower view, defining “derivative work” as “a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted.” 17 U.S.C. § 101.

Why is this definition important? Because one of the six exclusive rights given to a copyright owner is the right “to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work.” 17 U.S.C. § 106. Thus the movie version and the videogame version of the novel Jurassic Park are “derivative works” that cannot be made without the permission of the owner of the copyright in the underlying work. Most of us understand that part—but not much else.

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Copyright Myths Debunked

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Category: Art Miscellanea

Published on Friday, 02 April 2010 10:42

Written by Jonathan Pink

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Copyright Myths Debunked

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Jonathan Pink

Over lunch the other day, a coworker asked whether it was true that there was no need to register work with the Copyright Office as long as you put it into an envelope and mail it to yourself. Gazing past the rigatoni stuck in his teeth and focusing on the question, I realized that I had heard it before. Many times before. "So what's the deal?" he asked, "Is it true or not?"

The answer is ... buried in the following multiple-choice test.

Myth 1:

Copyright protection comes from placing a "©" on your work.

a. Absolutely true. Why else would that little c be in the circle?

b. Sometimes true, depending on things I'm not really sure about.

c. Not true.

The answer is c. For works created after March 1, 1989, copyright protection attaches immediately and automatically at the moment of creation. You can even try it at home: take a pen, draw a quick sketch. Done? Great. Copyright protection has already attached. And it does not require you to pen in that familiar © symbol. 17 USC §401(a); 17 USC §102(a).

For works created before March 1989, the © was required for protection-although in the labyrinth of copyright laws, some allowance was made for works published after December 31, 1977 if the would-be copyright owner took certain measures to cure the error of omitting the mark. That means that if you take your kid's Darth Vader action figure, give it Barbie-like hair, and dress it in platform shoes, you're going to get hit with an infringement action when you try selling it at Toys-R-Us as Ella Vader. You also risk getting hit with a morals charge.

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Copyright Pitfall No. 2: When Nature Inspires Your Art, Make Sure You Copy Only Mother Nature

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Category: Art Miscellanea

Published on Friday, 24 July 2009 09:04

Written by Tobias Butler, Attorney at Law

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Copyright Pitfall No. 2: When Nature Inspires Your Art, Make Sure You Copy Only Mother Nature

As we discussed in Pitfall No. 1, copyright protection for nature-based works is a different animal (so to speak). While judicial opinions may seem intimidating to most artists (and people generally), it’s important to understand how courts handle copyrighted works since court is where you go to have your protections enforced.

Copyright Can Be Big or Small.
You can get a copyright for your original work of authorship. But, your copyright (i.e. just what it covers) can be bigger or smaller depending on how much of your work is original to you.

What Exactly Is Infringement?
The "right" in copyright entitles you to keep someone from infringing your copyright. I infringe your copyright when I copy your work, plain and simple.

But, as we already covered, your copyright only covers the list of original elements you add. So, you can stop me only from taking those elements. Putting it all together, your copyright prevents me (or anyone) from copying the original elements you add to something.

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