Lauren van Haaften-Schick is a PhD Candidate in the History of Art and Visual Studies at Cornell University. Lauren’s research considers historical intersections of art and law, with a focus on artists’ contracts, the history of artists’ rights laws, and artists' interventions in the legal system and legal norms since the 1960s. Her dissertation fuses art and legal histories to trace the influences and after-effects of "The Artist's Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement," a boilerplate artist's contract developed by curator-publisher of Conceptual art Seth Siegelaub with lawyer Robert Projansky in 1971, which remains a widely cited and controversial model of artist's property and economic rights today. Lauren's time as a DLI Fellow will feed her research into emerging art sales platforms utilizing smart contracts on blockchain. A curatorial practice and collaborations with artists, lawyers, and technologists informs her research, in addition to ten years of professional experience in art prior to beginning graduate study. She has received grants and fellowships from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, and Engaged Cornell, among others, and has been invited to lecture on her research and curate exhibitions in the U.S. and internationally.