Artist-Workshop Agreement

Managing Artist-Workshop Agreements


Protect Your Art Business and Personal Assets. Create Indemnity.

None of us want or expect things to go wrong (or we wouldn't step out the door). But even with the most careful and rigorous planning, things can happen. We recommend creating a layer of protection for yourself. Send each customer an 'Artist Workshop agreement' for each workshop they buy. Ask for a signature.

You can reassure your participants by adding notice in the 'Workshop Details' section.

They'll know before paying that you expect them to sign and return this secure document. Most people will be happy to do this. They'll have the confidence of knowing that you're a professional who cares. (And if they're not happy to do this, do you want them in your event?)

The Workshop agreement refers to a single workshop that you name, describe and offer. By signing, participants are agreeing to the details they find about that workshop. This document becomes a contract.

Steps For Preparing Agreements

Send your Artist-Workshop agreement to your workshop customers with a few short steps. You can do some steps in advance, to save time when customers register.

  1. download template  This is a fillable-form pdf document. You are welcome to use and edit for your own purposes.
  2. Pre-fill the items listed below. Save this copy as a your own Master Workshop Template pdf document.
    1. Fill in the blanks for your information.
    2. first paragraph: Artist Name
    3. first paragraph: “Your Contact Information”  
      1. Add your physical business address if you have one.  If you don't have a separate business address, and don't feel comfortable adding your residential address, add your own website address or a phone number so that your Customers can contact you if they need to.
    4. Section 3: Notices posted: Your GDA workshop URL  (this URL will be different for each workshop you offer)
    5. Section 7: Your State or Province/Country
  3. You can save some time by filling out the Printed and Date fields under the Artist Signature. Do not add anything to the Customer Signature area.
  4. Save this pdf under a new filename as a fresh template file for your particular workshop. For example, if your workshop is titled “Summers in France”, you could save a specific template as SummersInFrance.pdf
Sending Agreements to Workshop Registrants
  1.  In your account dashboard, navigate to the list of participants for your workshop (Participants/View Participants)
  2. As soon as possible after any registrations, send your agreement to each participant through a reliable 3rd party e-sign provider like Adobe E-sign or Pandadoc.  Selecting the Name on the list will give you the email address of that participant.  HINT:  You can right-click to copy the email address.
  3. Log into your e-sign provider account, and follow the on-screen instructions to load your document. The e-sign provider will send the document out for signature, notify you of its signed return, and in some cases will store the document online.

Alternately, you can simply mail a  printed, signed-by-you document to your customer, and request a signed returned by mail by a certain date.  It's slower, but the post office still works.

Download Template Here

Download your Artist-Workshop Agreement Template.    

You can come back anytime and download a fresh copy.


If you don’t yet subscribe to an online e-sign service, try Pandadoc.com. Pandadoc provides a free account that will work well for your workshops. Create an account and a login as preparation, so you’ll be ready for your registrants.


If You Use Pandadoc.com

Pandadoc has onscreen instructions to upload a copy of your agreement. Other e-sign service providers have their own steps, but they’re all fairly similar. Here’s a summary of the steps in Pandadoc.com, or refer to their help guides:

  1. Log into Pandadoc.com. From your computer, load the pdf you want to send.
  2. Add recipients (you can send only one recipient at a time in the free version)
  3. The bottom of the screen has a message to “Place fields” Say ‘No thanks’ to Place fields message. You will be placing signature fields manually.
  4. From the right-hand menu, select yourself under “FILLABLE FIELDS FOR”.
  5. Drag a Signature field into the doc area near the Artist Signature. You can reposition the blocks in the document, if needed.
  6. Drag Text field beneath your name, and add your name to the box. If you’ve added your print name and date already, you can skip step 6.
  7. Drag a Date field beneath your name, and add date. If you’ve added your print name and date already, you can skip step 7
  8. Change the personae under “FILLABLE FIELDS FOR’ to your recipient’s name.
  9. Repeat steps 5,6,7 adding the same fields for your recipient.
  10. Check everything.
  11. 'Send'

NOTE:  The three vertical dots icon at the top right of the Pandadoc menu bar reveals more file operations, included Delete.

Your participant will receive the document with instructions to sign and return.  They don't need to have an account or any special software or computer skills.  After both parties have signed, both parties receive a signature confirmation, and will be able to download a copy for your records.. The final copy will contain a Certificate of Signing.

Here are a couple of shortcuts to Pandadocs Help:

https://support.pandadoc.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040663914--Editor-2-0-Send-and-sign-a-document-

https://support.pandadoc.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026361793--Editor-2-0-Automatically-send-PDF-of-a-completed-document


Have comments, suggestions or questions for the Green Room? If you have a question, there's probably someone else with the same question. We'll do our best to answer, and contact. Suggestions are always welcome. We're committed to making the Golden Dragonfly Academy for Art work for artists.

Send us a note and let us know!