Contract
Museum contract
Only in rare instances would an artist be asked to generate his or her own contract with a museum. Museums are accustomed to be subcontracting people for work and have contracts prepared in these situations. My partner and I had to generate a contract with the Creative Discovery Museum, but only because it wasn't build yet. In that situation, we simply used the accepted bid proposal and added schedules describing completion scheduling, payment for the artwork, disposition of artwork originals, copyright to the artwork, and limited indemnification. We then set it up like a standard agreement, and everyone signed. These same items are the things likely to be addressed in any contract with a museum, and when signing a museum contract, there are some points of negotiation.
A museum is like any other art buyer, and an artist is wise to limit the copyrights he or she licenses to a museum just the same as would be the case with TV or publishing contracts. Certainly, if an artist did a mural or a sculpture for a museum, it is only reasonable, and to the advantage of both the artist and the museum, if the museum is given the rights to use the artwork to advertise and promote the exhibit. This is no reason for the artist to give up copyright to the work. Arrangements can be made in the museum contract whereby the artist retains copyright to the works but grants the museum free use of the work for its own purposes, (like making posters, museum publications, etc.) Too many times an artist relinquishes the copyright to a significant piece of work to a museum, and the museum, due to a lack of funds or initiative does nothing with it!
The disposition of artwork originals, in situations where the museum displays digital reproductions of the original graphics is another point for the artist to negotiate. There is no reason for the museum to need to own the original as long as it can be made available, should the museum require use of it. In most cases the originals will simply sit in drawers in the museum's collections and no one will be able to find them anyway. The artist is a much better custodian of his or her own work in this case.
The artist faces liability to the museum for non-performance or failure to complete on schedule, so make sure the schedule is possible. The museum also must agree to comply with a schedule for reviewing the artist's work at each stage of completion. Payment for museum work probably will be made in stages, and an artist should invoice against his or her fee in accordance with the payment schedule.