Permisions Blog: Since February 2018

The Evolution of Rights and Permissions for Electronic Publication in Art History during the period of the Art History Publication Initiative

BY Steve Cohn

In October 2010 four university presses—the University of Washington Press, as the lead applicant, plus Duke University Press, Penn State University Press, and the University of Pennsylvania Press—submitted an application to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a grant of more than $1 million in support of publishing first books in art history in both print and electronic formats. In December of that year a grant of $1,257,100 was approved for the Art History Publication Initiative (AHPI). With an extension, the grant period ran for nine years, from 2011 through the end of 2019.

From the first, AHPI envisioned making progress on rights and permissions matters as one of the key elements it would need to accomplish. The AHPI presses knew how crucial it would be for the success of the program to make more effective and efficient the process of obtaining the rights and permissions needed for electronic publication of the images that are essential to books in art history. Even in the case of works of art that are in the public domain, permissions are often required to obtain and publish high-quality reproductions, which are often closely controlled by museums or archives.

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