This month's meetup will feature a panel on the topic of Creative Commons licensing and open culture as it applies to cultural institutions and the arts. We'll take a look at some of the ways museums are opening up their content, and explore the limitations and rights restrictions they're still having to contend with. We'll also take a look at how artists are using CC licensing and working with CC materials.

7pm - Doors

7:15pm - Brief presentation from artists M.River & T.Whid of MTAA

7:30-8:30pm - Panel discussion, Q&A

8:30-10pm - Informal networking

Panel speakers include:

Fred Benenson of Creative Commons, Shelley Bernstein of the Brooklyn Museum, Jonathan Lutzky of Masur Law and Tim Whidden (T.Whid) from MTAA.

Speaker Bios:

MTAA (M.River & T.Whid Art Associates)
Michael Sarff (M. River), born 1967, Iowa City, Iowa
Tim Whidden (T.Whid), born 1969, Elyria, Ohio
Both members of MTAA live and work in Brooklyn, New York

Michael Sarff and Tim Whidden formed the artist collaboration MTAA in 1996. MTAA has presented artworks and performances at The New Museum of Contemporary Art, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Postmasters Gallery and Artists Space, all in New York city; The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; The Beall Center for Art and Technology in Irvine, CA,The Getty Center in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

International exhibitions include the Seoul Net & Film Festival in Korea and Videozone2 - The 2nd International Video Art Biennial in Israel. The collaboration has earned grants and awards from the Creative Capital Foundation, Rhizome.org, Eyebeam and New Radio & Performing Arts, Inc..

Fred Benenson works in NYC as Creative Commons‘ product manager developing products and does outreach for the organization’s licenses and projects. In early 2009 Fred began working as an honorary research associate at Eyebeam in collaboration with senior resident Michael Mandiberg to curate contemporary art into the commons. During the fall of 2009, Fred began teaching as an adjunct instructor at NYU’s department of Media, Culture and Communication. This semester he is teaching “Copyright, Commerce and Culture“.

Shelley Bernstein is the Chief of Technology at the Brooklyn Museum where she works to further the Museum's community-oriented mission through projects that include all kinds of tech stuff and social media.
She co-created 1stfans and organized Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition in 2008.

Jonathan Lutzky is associate counsel at MasurLaw, specializing in intellectual property, contracts, and general corporate transactional work. Jonathan also supervises MasurLaw’s trademark department. MasurLaw is a venture, intellectual property and entertainment law firm that focuses on content and technology contracts, corporate finance, M&A, and general counsel services. Jonathan has experience working closely with musicians, musical instrument companies, record producers, record labels, visual artists, graphic designers and inventors.

NOTE: All proceeds from this event will go to benefit Creative Commons and help them in their fundraising efforts. If you'd like to make an additional contribution (and get yourself a sweet Creative Commons t-shirt designed by Shepard Fairey) you can visit their website.

Special thanks to you, the members, The New York Times and Threadless for making this event possible.