$50,000 for 50 artists (USA only )

Art News: New Program Offers $50K to 50 Artists

NEW YORK, Sept. 6, 2006—Working artists now have a new support system. The burgeoning charity United States Artists is kicking off its grant program by offering $50,000 each to 50 artists, no strings attached. The group will announce the first recipients on Dec. 4, The New York Times reports.

In a program being hailed as one of the most generous in existence, panels of artists, critics, scholars and others in the arts are reviewing the applications of 300 artists who were nominated by 150 anonymous arts leaders around the country.

“We want these awards to demonstrate the diversity of American art and the artists who create it,” said United States Artists executive director Katharine DeShaw.

The charity got its start using $20 million donated by four foundations—Ford, Rockefeller, Prudential and the Alaska-based Rasmuson—but it plans to use gifts from individuals to create a permanent endowment. It already has attracted the support of well-known arts patrons Agnes Gund and Edythe Broad. The goal is to get each donor to eventually contribute $1 million to endow a fellowship, DeShaw said.

The new charity was inspired in part by the 2003 Urban Institute study, “Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structure for U.S. Artists,” that documented the plight of artists since the mid-1990s, when the federal government cut many of the National Endowment for the Arts’ grants amid debate over controversial works.

Supporters say the United States Artists program is different from many other arts charities because it gives money directly to artists instead of to organizations. And it is stepping in at a critical time, when the cost of living is rising, they add.

“The individual artist has been at the back of the line in terms of support in American funding over the last decade,” said Philip Bither, performing arts curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, “so any new system designed to get support directly into the hands of working artists is important.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 7th, 2006 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.