From the inaugural issue of Art Monthly in October 1976 to date, theArtlaw Column has been published regularly, and has tried to bring tothe visual arts community in the UK an awareness and understanding ofthe law relating to the visual arts. That first column was written atthe beginning of the Artlaw Research Project, which for two yearsconsulted artists, administrators and lawyers in the UK (and the USA)to identify any unmet needs for specialist 'artlaw' services. By 1978,the Arts Council of Great Britain and the Calouste GulbenkianFoundation had agreed to fund a unique national legal service for thevisual arts in the UK: Artlaw Services.

These pieces chart the progress and successes of Artlaw Servicesthrough to its demise in 1984, when public funding was withdrawnfollowing the then Thatcher Government's severe cuts in public artsfunding generally. Not before which, Artlaw Services had helped toestablish the Arts Law Centre of Australia (still operatingsuccessfully - with public funding) and the Design and ArtistsCopyright Society (the UK's not-for-profit artists' copyrightorganisation).

It is particularly heartening that Artquest has now picked up aconcern for the delivery of legal information and help to the visualarts community, of which the electronic availability of this archive isa part.