IVARO was established in 2005 with the support of the following organisations:
Irish Copyright Licensing Agency
Copyright Association of Ireland
These organisations represent three constituencies for whom a visual artists collecting society is most relevant – the artistic community (through VAI), the collection agency for authors and publishers, which depends on a good relationship with the creators of artistic works (ICLA) and legal practitioners and others interested in copyright (through CAI).
The collaboration was initiated in 2005 by Linda Scales, a director of the CAI, and a group of UCD students, Alex Davis, Amy Strecker and Eimear Chaomhánach who were working on a business plan to establish a copyright collecting society for Irish visual artists.
The EU Directive which led to the introduction of the Artists Resale Right (droit de suite) in Ireland, was also a leading impetus in the establishment of IVARO. Until the formation of IVARO, Ireland was the only EU member state without a collecting society for visual artists.