Contracts & Agreements

STANDARD: Ensure all parties involved in the touring exhibition understand their rights, obligations, and responsibilities through clear and fair contracts or agreements.

Minimum Practice

Touring exhibition contracts comply with Australian contract law and include a valid offer and acceptance process. Agreements clearly outline roles and responsibilities, payment terms, insurance and risk allocation, termination provisions, and processes for variation. All obligations under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), including notably scope of use, specific permissions required, and moral rights obligations must be met. Organisations must not make false or misleading representations, as per the Australian Consumer Law. The model Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and Victorian equivalent Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic) must be reflected, and all fees and pay rates adhere, at a minimum, to the NAVA Code of Practice for Visual Arts, Craft and Design Payment Standards. Anti-discrimination laws, including the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth), the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), State/Territory anti-discrimination laws, and State/Territory laws relating to the employment or engagement of people who work or volunteer with children, are upheld, alongside Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP). Appropriate insurance coverage is maintained for creatives, works and objects, staff, volunteers, and the public for the full duration of the tour.

Best Practice

Building on legal compliance, best practice prioritises plain-language and transparent agreements that support informed consent and genuine negotiation. Contracts are ideally developed with legal advice and provide opportunities for partners and creatives to receive clear explanation on their rights and obligations. Cultural requirements and protocols, access and inclusion requirements, and community needs are meaningfully embedded within agreements and contracts to respond to the specific contexts and capacities of all stakeholders.

Guidance

Essential tools for managing expectations and realistic timeframes, contracts and agreements between all parties involved in touring exhibitions lay out the legal and ethical requirements, signal intentions, and designate responsibilities.

Tour Organiser and Originating Venue/s

This relationship may or may not form a part of your touring exhibition, as you may be both the tour organiser and the originating venue. Where multiple venues partner to develop an exhibition, it is advisable to have an agreement in place. In the initial stages of your partnership, you may have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or an Agreement. While an MOU can be useful during the initial phase of engaging with creatives and lenders, developing the tour concept, sourcing venues, and applying for funding, it should be clear whether the document is intended to be legally binding in whole or in part. Early agreements should clarify objectives, decision-making authority, obligations, ownership, and licencing of intellectual property (including curatorial content and branding), attribution, and key deliverable targets.

Tour Organiser and Creatives

If your tour includes work from artists or curators, a written agreement between the tour organiser and each creative severally, is essential for the protection of all parties. These agreements should clearly address payment schedules, itinerary details, moral rights, copyright, Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP), as well as the scope of the creative’s involvement. Copyright ownership and licensing should be expressly stated, including permitted uses of the work for exhibition, promotion, and communication to the public. Moral rights must be acknowledged, with clear attribution requirements and agreed processes for consultation where works are adapted, installed, or reproduced. Where relevant, Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) considerations should be embedded in the agreement, including compliance with cultural protocols, community permissions, and restrictions on reuse or documentation. The agreement should also clarify responsibilities for insurance, storage, freight, and condition reporting, and include details about artwork/s and insurance values. Integrating a conservation plan is advisable, setting out how incidents will be managed, whether the creative may undertake minor repairs, and when a professional conservator must be engaged.

Conditions for live performances, public programs, or on-site participation may be included in this agreement or addressed through separate contracts.

Tour Organiser and Lenders

If your tour is funded by loans from organisations, or private lenders, a written agreement between the tour organiser and each lender is essential for the protection of all parties. The agreement should outline the obligations of the tour organiser, the lender, and where relevant, the host venues, including requirements for handling, packing, storage, and freight. Detailed information about artwork/s should be incorporated or annexed, including descriptions, condition reports, insurance values, provenance, and attribution. It is wise to include express provisions specific to conservation should an incident occur to the artwork or object, which could include the contact details of a preferred conservator and responsibility for payment. Where a work by a living artist is included, and particularly where engagement or participation by the artist is contemplated, a separate agreement with the artist may also be appropriate to address moral rights of attribution or integrity, any approval or consultation rights, and remuneration where a fee is offered.

Tour Organiser and Host Venue/s

A written agreement should be entered into with each host venue participating in a touring exhibition to clearly manage expectations, allocate risk, and define responsibility. This agreement should specify key dates for installation, exhibition, and deinstallation, and clearly set out duty of care obligations, including condition reporting, handling, storage, security, and cancellation. The agreement should also address insurance arrangements, including when responsibility for insurance and risk passes from the tour organiser (for example, during transit or centralised storage) to the host venue once the works are in its care, custody, or control.

Copyright and image-use rights should be addressed expressly, including whether the tour organiser holds permission to reproduce images of the works, whether only licensed or approved images may be used in marketing and communications, and any limitations on use. Attribution and crediting requirements should be clearly defined. The agreement should also provide a framework for managing natural disasters or other unplanned events, including agreed protocols, contingency planning, and communication channels to be followed if such an event occurs.

Access & Inclusion

Address access and inclusion requirements at the contract or MOU / contract stage. Work collaboratively with relevant stakeholders, including creatives, venues, vendors, and lenders to identify and agree on access provisions. This may include:

• providing specific access services
• engaging support workers and consultants
• offering flexible working arrangements
• arranging accessible travel and accommodation
• ensuring venues meet physical and sensory access requirements (e.g. step-free access, circulation space, lighting and sound conditions)
• confirming vendor capability to deliver accessible formats, equipment, or services
• aligning display requirements with lenders to support accessible presentation where possible

Ready To Use Support

Arts Law – Contract Templates

The Arts Law Centre of Australia has a range of contracts available for purchase on their website. They are also able to review your contracts or support you in designing contract templates specific to your needs. If you are seeking funding for your tour, asking Arts Law for a quote for their services and including this in your budget is recommended.

ICOM UK – International Touring Exhibitions Template Agreement & Guidance Notes

This agreement template written by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) UK in 2017 was produced with legal advice by Farrer & Co. This template was designed as a useful resource to be adapted to meet the specific needs of the tour organiser within their context.

The Exhibitions Group (UK) – Touring an Exhibition

This resource, authored by Alice Lobb (2015), goes through considerations for touring an exhibition. At the end of the page are two PDF Hire Agreement Templates with a UK context.

Arts Law & M&G NSW – Guide for Museums and Galleries Hosting Exhibitions that include (ICIP)

This guidebook written by the Arts Law Centre of Australia in consultation with Museums & Galleries of NSW (M&G NSW) contains information of Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) within a touring context, as well as questions for organisations to consider when presenting a touring exhibition that contains ICIP.

Creativity is Mistakes

Creativity is Mistakes is a collaborative project between disabled artists and visual arts organisations in Wales.

This webpage collates a number of resources that promote collective access in the visual arts, drawing on the voices, talents and experiences of disabled, Deaf and neurodivergent visual artists. This resource includes an access rider workbook and access rider templates that are ready to use.

Useful Resources & Further Reading

NETS Australia – Contract Terminology

This document provides example of legally binding and non-legally binding contracts. This non-exhaustive list also includes key terms and has been designed as a general outline. Seeking legal advice from specialised agencies or legal departments is advised and recommended.

M&G QLD – Working with Children Checks

This document complied by Museums & Galleries QLD (M&G QLD) provides information on State/Territory Legislation to comply with when working with vulnerable people and/or working with children.

The Exhibitions Group (UK) – Loans

Many exhibitions include loans from external sources to augment the organising venue’s collection and to explore the narrative or subject in full. Touring exhibitions are no exception to this rule. This resource authored by Alison Fisher, Fiona Melvin, Gillian Rennie for The Exhibitions Group (2015) outlines the processes and best practice considerations for loaning artworks and objects.

The Exhibitions Group (UK) – Copyright & Reproductions

Authored by Bernard Horrocks (2015) for The Exhibitions Group, this resource covers considerations that may be needed for your exhibition in relation to copyright and reproductions, including photography, moral rights, and loan agreements.

M&G NSW – Legal requirements: Insurance and compliance

a list of legal requirements and legislative acts that apply to not-for-profit, non-government museums, art galleries and Aboriginal keeping places in NSW.

Arts Law – Putting Works Online

A factsheet by the Arts Law Centre of Australia answering some of the most common questions they have received from artists and arts organisations about showing works online and digitising collections.

Simpson and McDonald – Collection Law & Ethics, Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums Book by Shane Simpson and Ian McDonald titled Collection Law & Ethics, Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums (Federation Press, 2025). Refer to Chapter 16 ‘Developing Exhibitions’, Chapter 17 ‘Creative Services Agreements’, Chapter 18 ‘Loans’, and Chapter 19 ‘Touring Exhibitions’.

Precarious Movements – Agreements & Contracts

Precarious Movements is a best practice resource for presenting choreographic works in the museum. This section looks at the function of contracts and agreements, focusing on finding a balance between transparency, responsibility, and flexibility.

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