Nicholas Sharp is a commercial solicitor with a special interest in the visual arts.  He worked for top City firm Slaughter and May for seven years and in industry before starting his own practice in 1988.

He was a consultant to Colgate-Palmolive group from 1988 to 2008 and other business clients have included publishing house Centaur Communications.

He has advised arts businesses, arts organisations and individual practitioners on contracts, copyright and other legal issues for many years.

He is a director of a-n The Artists’ Information Company, publishers of a-n Magazine and the leading national provider of information and advice to practising professional artists. He is the author of a-n’s Visual Arts Contracts series and joint author of the a-n interactive Artist’s Contracts Toolkit.

He is also a director of ArtCo Trading, the Arts Council subsidiary which operates the national ‘Own Art’ scheme which provides interest-free credit for art purchases. 

Nick joined Swan Turton as a consultant in January 2006. In December 2009 he founded ‘Contracts for the Visual Arts’, a new unit within the firm which provides specialist legal advice and support for arts organizations and businesses.

In 1998 he co-founded The Multiple Store which commissions and sells limited editions by major contemporary British artists including Fiona Banner, Langlands & Bell, Cornelia Parker and Alison Wilding.

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