Fair Use Class Assignments for Museum Studies and Museum Education Classes

  1. Create a mockup of a printed brochure or virtual tour for the website of a proposed museum exhibition of contemporary art, and justify using unlicensed imagery from the exhibition referencing Section IV: Museum Uses in the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts (pp. 11–12).
  2. Develop a fundraising campaign organized around masterworks in the collection. Fundraising materials can range from picture postcards displaying art from the collection to reproductions of the works accompanied by written discussions from the curators about why these examples are masterworks. Have students discuss the fair use implications of their choices, citing Section IV in the Code.
  3. Have students develop ideas for an exhibition on the subject of art and politics. After selecting images, discuss whether or not they can be reproduced (in print or online) relying on fair use, as described in Section IV in the Code. Issues will include the availability of high-quality images, sources for born-digital and/or ephemeral materials (such as newspapers, TV clips, etc), and possible restrictions from private collections.
SHARE