Feb 145 min read

The Legalities Behind Painting Murals

The legalities of the business that every muralist should know

Questions that may be asked are, who owns the rights to the mural? Whose permission do you need in order to paint a mural? Copyright? City codes? Licensing? Permits? Insurance? Contracts?

These are some of the legalities that go into having a mural business. Let’s go over what needs to be done before starting a mural.

Logo painted by Summer DeSalvo

Who owns the rights?

You do! Your client paid for the mural, it’s on their wall, but that doesn’t mean they own the whole piece. The owner owns the work of art but the artist will always retain all the rights to the artwork. This is all explained in Copyright Act of 1976. This means that any kind of advertisement that is done with the mural should be ran through you.

There’s a company right now that want to make shirts and keychains with my one of my murals. Before they can do that, it needs to be ran through me first and I have every right to take a percentage of that.

Permission

When it comes to the legalities of your town, I would research what they require specifically. The owner of the building may give you permission but you really need to go through the town if it’s being displayed publicly.

It would suck if you painted a beautiful masterpiece, the owner loves it, the civilians love it, but the city said “not today” and make you cover it up. Whoever would do this is just plain evil but they do have every right to. There are a few towns around me that require permission to paint a mural and some have restrictions on what you paint as well. This is usually something that the client commissioning the mural should get permission for if it is their building being painted.

Always get permission prior or ask the city what the codes and permits are before starting! You don’t want to lose a beautiful work of art due to something like this, so stay covered.

Mural painted by Summer DeSalvo

Copyright

This goes back to you as the artist. You own the copyright. Even the owner needs to run an idea past you if they’re making their own merchandise with it.

Using a mural for a backdrop of a photo isn’t fair use. Using a mural as photography to sell also isn’t fair use. But it happens. Everyday.

For example if a business wants to use your mural for their website, logo, etc. there needs to be a licensing/copyright agreement laid out in either a contract or another signed document.

These are your rights and you can choose to do what you please with them. I personally would like to receive money any way I can but I’m also human and don’t want to make it a pain for others to make a living. Now if it’s a huge company using it for multiple uses then yes, I will get my percentage.

When I paint a mural, my end game is to have it make people happy, to make people stop and appreciate art for a moment. I want viewers to go home and still think about it. I don’t want to destroy the beauty and appreciation of a mural by making it about money.

City Codes

Every city and state has different codes when it comes to public display of artwork. I live in Florida so this is what my state has to say about painting murals.

“479.156 Wall murals.—Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, a municipality or county may permit and regulate wall murals within areas designated by such government. If a municipality or county permits wall murals, a wall mural that displays a commercial message and is within 660 feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way within an area adjacent to the interstate highway system or the federal-aid primary highway system shall be located only in an area that is zoned for industrial or commercial use pursuant to s. 479.024. The municipality or county shall establish and enforce regulations for such areas which, at a minimum, set forth criteria governing the size, lighting, and spacing of wall murals consistent with the intent of 23 U.S.C. s. 131 and with customary use.“

I suggest looking up the city codes in the area you’re painting just to stay covered whenever painting a mural in a new town.

Photo credits to Pexels.com

Licenses & Permits

This goes back to copyright. Businesses need some kind of licensing in order to use your artwork on merchandise, advertisement, etc. When it comes to a large company, licensing is necessary.

Licensing is an easy way to make more money off artwork that you’ve already created and increase the scope of a project. It helps you build your portfolio, increase your visibility, and make more money.

When it comes to your own licensing, this depends on your state. Some cities require a permit or licensing and some don’t.

Insurance

Get insured if you are receiving larger jobs. Insurance is important and illegal to not have in some cases. If you are just starting out and painting a nursery in someone’s small home then just keep it in mind for when you get big and continue working.

If you are on a lift 50 feet up in a public place while on 3 news channels, you better get insured. You can easily be fined if everything isn’t up to code with the job you’re doing or the equipment you’re operating.

You can get basic liability for your mural business for as low as $25 a month.

Contracts

Contracts are so important! This is an agreement that the artist puts together for the client so that everyone is on the same page with the scope of the project. I go into depth about the importance of contracts in this article: https://summerknows.blog/2024/02/05/understanding-mural-contracts-agreements/

I also offer a “Contract and Deposit” Template in my downloadable “Printable Packet”.

Printable Packet

Photo credits to Pexels.com

To wrap up,

When looking into the legalities of having a mural business there are many things you should consider. This includes the rights you own, the rights of the client, city codes, licensing, permits, and insurance.

This is all the boring parts of a business, yet extremely important! So go get those ducks in a row!

Follow up with future topics about owning a mural business by subscribing to my email list! Here I will be discussing everything you need to know about murals, tutorials on how to paint, worksheets for your business, and giveaways for FREE PAINTINGS.

Also feel free to comment with suggestions or questions. I’m here for you all!

References

Statutes & constitution :view statutes : Online sunshine. (2024, February 14). http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0400-0499%2F0479%2FSections%2F0479.156.html 

Please leave this field empty