Chase symposium to help artists

To help artists, filmmakers, musicians and writers with the business and legal aspects of their work, the Salmon P. Chase College of Law is holding a symposium entitled “Success Strategies for the Professional Artists in the Digital Age.”

“It’s going to help the artist know which agreements are good and when to get the attorney involved,” said Lindsey Jaeger, Chase’s Director of Centers and Institutes Administration.

The symposium will be held on Nov. 6 from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Griffin Hall’s Digitorium.

According to Jaeger, the symposium will be divided into three sections. The first one will deal with legal and business strategies for film production.

The second section will deal with exhibiting, licensing and promoting work. According to Jon Garon, the director of Chase, this section will also cover concert and gallery deals, as well as transactions.

The third section will cover financing issues like how to raise money and find work.

According to Jaeger, a diverse range of students from both the arts and the sciences have registered for the symposium.

“The format of the workshop is designed for interactive discussion between expert panelists and the audience of students, attorneys and professional artists,” Jaeger said.

The symposium will also cover new Securities Exchange Commission rules on crowdsourcing, or raising money through sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

According to Jaeger, the new rules being added to the SEC policy are 585 pages long. Garon said it also allows investors to get more information about the artists through background checks and disclosures before they invest.

“If someone’s going to be giving you money freely for a certain purpose, then I think they should be able to do a background check on you,” said Alyson Ginn, a senior Anthropology major.

The SEC’s website says the new rules are part of the 2012 Start Up Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which is designed to promote small businesses.

The event will also cover Amazon and similar sites that offer methods of self-publishing music and literature. Amazon’s CreateSpace site offers royalties for books based on how much they cost. CreateSpace’s royalties for songs is $0.65 per track

“I think Amazon has a pretty fair deal as far as percentages, but unless you’re willing to shell out some dough to advertise your story, it isn’t likely to get noticed much,” said Sarah Hart, an NKU graduate with a degree in literature who has published through Amazon.

The symposium is sponsored by Frost Brown Todd, a local law firm that specializes in copyright law, and the American Bar Association Section Cyberspace Law Committee Copyright Alliance.

Link to register.

If you are not able to attend the event, the symposium will also be streamed live online.

Admission for the general public is $145, $125 for alumni, $25 for artists and free for students and academics.