This handbook provides the definitive guide to commissioning contemporary art. Every step and stage is revealed and demystified - from the initial invitation to an artist to the financing of a project, from the drafting of contracts to the final siting and installation of works, from the care and preservation of commissioned pieces to their interpretation and publicity. Combining theoretical and conceptual considerations with practical ones, Buck and McClean's lively and instructive text is supplemented with copious quotations and insights from some of the best-known artists, curators, commissioners and museum directors of today, including Nicholas Serota, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jeff Koons, Vito Acconci, Mark Wallinger, Anish Kapoor, RoseLee Goldberg, Thomas Krens, Anne Pasternak, Barbara Gladstone, Mera Rubell, and Olafur Eliasson, to provide a detailed and informed how-to guide to the commissioning process.

Louisa Buck is a writer and broadcaster on contemporary art. She has been the London contemporary art columnist for The Art Newspaper, and is a regular reviewer on BBC radio and TV, including Front Row, Nightwaves and BBC World Service¿s The Strand. She has written numerous books and was a judge for the 2005 Turner Prize. Daniel McClean specialises in art law. He is the co-author, with Karsten Schubert, of Trials of Art; Dear Images: Art, Copyright and Culture.