CMT ARTISTS: Creative financing for struggling artists

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Creative financing for struggling artists

By Dave Carpenter, Associated Press

August 2, 2006

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-et-artists2aug02,1,5081958.story

CHICAGO — Being a struggling artist isn't what it used to be. In

fact, it might be worse.

Falkowski thinks so, and it's easy to understand why. The

suburban Chicago resident and his wife have a combined five art

degrees and six figures in debt because of them.

" Van Gogh was simply broke — he didn't have $100,000 in debt, " says

the 32-year-old Falkowski, who makes text paintings but works

weekdays as a medical receptionist to make ends meet. " We all should

be so lucky. "

Mostly self-employed or relying on part-time teaching jobs, many

artists tend to have shaky finances and scant prospects for improving

them aside from going into another profession. But some institutions

have sprung up in recent years to try to help — and ideally thrive

financially at the same time.

Artist Pension Trust, Creative Capital and Fractured Atlas are among

the options for artists with talent but limited wherewithal to pursue

it. They offer creative workers financial education, career planning

help, health insurance — even some steady income.

Persistence and patience still are required in large doses.

Bernard knows. An accomplished artist in photography and video,

the Californian has received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. She

founded and runs a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles dedicated to

experimental music and has taught at Art Center College in Pasadena

for six years. But like many artists, Bernard is still just scraping

by at age 47 through a combination of part-time jobs and art sales.

After all, she notes, there are only so many grants out there, and

that source of income eventually dries up.

Unlike other countries, which give artists individual grants and will

pay to send them to international exhibitions, there is no direct

funding for individual artists at the federal level in the United

States, she says.

Philanthropic groups and some for-profit ventures have stepped into

the gap.

Both Falkowski and Bernard are among the more than 300 artists who

have contributed works to Artist Pension Trust, a pension program

created to provide artists with long-term financial security in

exchange for their works of art.

The premise is unusual: Selected artists pool their works,

contributing 20 pieces over 20 years in exchange for receiving an

income stream as the trust sells the works.

APT was established 2 1/2 years ago by New York-based MutualArt Inc.,

an independent company formed to develop new financial service

products for the art world. It has regional trusts in New York,

Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Beijing and Mexico City, with more

planned. The organization also offers financial planning services for

artists.

Creative Capital, founded in 1999, tries to supply that financial

grounding as it applies the model of venture capital to the arts.

Artists are given seed money for their project in exchange for a

percentage of any profit. Since it has a stake in the project's

success, it offers artists support services such as strategic

planning and workshops in managing finances.

The New York-based nonprofit has not only given out more than $6

million to 242 artists — an average of $25,000 to $35,000 per

project — it has trained more than 1,000 artists in career planning,

money and time management and goal-setting at its workshops.

Fractured Atlas, a 9-year-old nonprofit, provides a variety of

support services to individual artists and arts organizations,

perhaps most notably health insurance.

" Artists are really sort of boxed out of the American healthcare

system because it's an employment-based system and artists are

usually either self-employed or it's very short-term, episodic

employment, " said Adam Huttler, executive director of the New York-

based organization. " You might be in a play for eight weeks, wait

tables for 16 weeks, do something else for another few weeks, be on

unemployment for a few weeks and then be in a play again for six

weeks. "

The group's leverage enables 2,000 artists to benefit from large

group rates on health insurance coverage. It offers eight health

plans, from $10 a month to $400 a month.