RIOC Says This Weekend's Fall For Arts Festival Cancelled Due To Expected Inclement Weather, Rescheduled To Saturday October 8 - Mural Artist Selected For Festival Withdraws From Event Because RIOC Requires Artist To Give Up Ownership Rights To Their Created Work

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) and Roosevelt Island Gallery RIVAA artists are collaborating this year to continue the Roosevelt Island Fall ForArts Festival tradition which was scheduled for this weekend.

But, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC)  announced this afternoon:

Due to the expected inclement weather this weekend, the Fall for Arts Festival has been rescheduled to Saturday, October 8th starting at 10 am through 5 pm. There will be no shortage of fun! We hope to see you there. See the event flyer attached for complete details.

Earlier this week I asked RIOC and Gallery RIVAA:

An artist participating in the 2022 Fall For Arts Festival reported the following objection regarding RIOC's ownership of works the Artist creates for the event. According to the Artist:

I applied for fall for the arts festival, and while I was excited for this opportunity upon seeing the paper work I had to sign, I was disappointed.

I think people should see/know this before they apply, that In participating in FFTA & signing this RIOC has rights over work that they did not create, and can do what they want with your work, like selling it& the artist won’t be able to get any residuals let alone any credit. The money and credit would all go to RIOC. I don’t think this is fair to people who put a lot of time in their art, & I also think a lot more people should be aware.

Does RIOC have any comment on requiring Artists to give up all ownership rights to the works they create for the Fall For Arts Festival?

Here's the RIOC Fall For Arts Festival artist agreement.

RIOC Vice President of Communications Akeem Jamal replied today:

There is no comment at this time from RIOC.

A Gallery RIVAA representative replied yesterday:

RIVAA met with RIOC yesterday and we discussed the issue of waivers.  Our two organizations are co-sponsoring this event, but the waiver part falls under RIOC's area of responsibility.  We relayed to RIOC the artist's position on waivers and it's now in their hands to decide if anything will change.