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Creative partnerships depend on shared credit, especially when many people contribute different skills.

For one creator, months of planning and logistics became a side credit while a helper became the public face.

Now that same former teammate wants the original documents to compete for another project at the same event.

Let’s read the full details below.

AITA for being upset that an old teammate took credit for our public art project and now wants my help on their new one?

My partner and I proposed a large-scale public sculpture. Our idea was accepted, and we hired a guy named “Z” to help build the structure.

I handled all the proposals, design documents, safety plans, budgeting, and insurance (which was a nightmare to find.)

My partner and some collaborators designed an LED display with programmed visual effects, while Z made a wooden square frame to hold the display in place.

We decided to list everyone involved in the project on the signage at the show. It was a dozen names because we believe art is collaborative. Heck, I went out of the way to ask the venue to reprint the signs in order to make sure everyone was acknowledged.

Though he handled almost everything, Z took public recognition for the project.

After the show, I was the one who found storage, organized transportation, and dealt with logistics. Z refused to help. Eventually, I was able to get the college to keep the piece and display it.

A few months later, the college published articles and put up signage crediting Z as the lead creator, using text I had written.

I didn’t know about this. My partner’s and my names were moved to the side. Z also gave incorrect technical info and didn’t credit the CS students who helped.

Now, Z says the college media wrote the articles that way for “marketing purposes” for the CS department and that it wasn’t his fault, but he admits he read the article and never corrected it.

Now, Z is asking for more help.

Recently, he’s been asking me to send him my design documents and logistics info as a template so he can use it as a guide to apply for his own art project.

He didn’t even tell me it was for that until I questioned him. It is the same event we are applying for.

I told him that it felt hurtful, given how he handled the last one.

My partner and I feel taken advantage of. We worked for months to make this project happen and gave credit equally, only to have someone else take ownership publicly.

AITA?

Eek! That guy sounds like something else.

Let’s check out what advice the readers over at Reddit have to offer him.

Here’s someone who thinks Z is wrong.

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According to this comment, he should never work with him again.

For this person, it hits close to home.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a neighbor who keeps reporting a neighbor who is constantly parking in the handicapped spots.

That is pretty ironic.

This creator handled most of the planning and logistics, yet a former teammate accepted public credit as the project’s lead artist.

Commenters agreed there was no reason to share valuable documents after he knowingly left the false credit uncorrected.

He took top billing for one project, then requested the instruction manual for the next.

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Author

Chris Allen