Kuvasto, founded in 1987, is a copyright society for visual artists. Our objective is to look after the rights of visual artists as defined by copyright legislation and promote the conditions for working in the field of visual arts.

We represent more than 3,400 Finnish visual artists and rightsholders, and through reciprocity agreements with our international sister societies, around 100,000 artists from other countries.

We want to facilitate the use of art by licensing images to users of artworks. As appointed by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, we collect resale royalties for visual art. In addition, we manage exhibition remunerations to artists represented by Kuvasto.

We influence the development of copyright regulations both in Finland and on an international level. We participate in the public debate on copyright and provide general advice on copyright.

Kuvasto has ten member organizations operating on a national level: AV-arkki (The Centre for Finnish Media Art), Artists’ Association MUU, Ornamo Art and Design Finland, Sarjakuvantekijät ry (Cartoonists’ Association), The Association of Finnish Sculptors, Union of Finnish Art Associations, The Association of Finnish Printmakers, Artists’ Association of Finland, Finnish Painters’ Union and Association of Photographic Artists.

We cover our operating expenses mainly with an operating expense percentage, deducted from the remunerations to be paid out.

The VISEK Centre for the Promotion of Visual Art operates in conjunction with Kuvasto.

Our international sister societies

We have entered reciprocity agreements with 35 international copyright societies representing visual artists. On the basis of these agreements, we represent foreign visual artists in Finland and, reciprocally, our international sister societies represent Finnish artists abroad. When works of foreign artists are used in Finland, we collect the royalties (remunerations) on their behalf and remit them to the relevant foreign society. Similarly, when the works of Finnish artists are used abroad, our sister societies pay out the collected royalties to you via Kuvasto.

Kuvasto is also a member of the International Federation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) and European Visual Artists (EVA).