Associate Rights Specialist

Job Summary

Reporting to the Associate Director of Dissemination and External Affairs at the Getty Research Institute, the Associate Rights Specialist coordinates image acquisition for communications, exhibitions, and public programs. Sources and acquires reproduction-quality images, identifies legal restrictions in their use, negotiates reproduction rights, processes payments, creates image logs to track caption and credit language, and develops and maintains records of all contracts and obligations. May also acquire assets and rights for other types of media assets, including audio, video, music, and text. May also assist with publication licensing activity in Getty Research Institute Publications, including research, material preparation, proposal and contract drafting, and contract tracking through Procurement.

Major Job Responsibilities

• Coordinates image acquisition and rights clearance for a high volume of communications, exhibitions, and public programs projects, including print and digital publications, digital and video communications, websites, and marketing/advertising materials
• Sources reproduction-quality images and negotiates licenses for their use with image vendors, museums, galleries, collectors, and artists
• Maintains relationships and billing arrangements with stock image, video, and music agencies
• Works in partnership with colleagues in other Getty departments and imaging studios to acquire and clear rights for Getty collection images
• Develops and maintains image logs or other records to track caption and credit language and to ensure that legal restrictions for use are well documented
• Ensures that images are being used in compliance with licensing contracts, including with accurate caption and credit lines upon publication
• Organizes image files and documentation for transmittal to design and production teams
• Processes payments and tracks costs against project budgets
• May supervise rights and permissions freelancers on select projects
• May conduct research, prepare materials, draft proposals and contracts, and track contracts through Procurement to assist publications licensing activity

Qualifications

• High school diploma/equivalent required; bachelor’s degree preferred
• 3-5 years experience in photo licensing industry and experience working with digital images

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Acrobat; familiarity with AirTable a plus
• Familiarity with one or more European languages a plus
• Knowledge of art history and of intellectual property and copyright issues as applied in the visual arts required
• Excellent organizational and communication skills
• Understanding of the Open Access and Open Culture landscape in the arts and culture sector a plus