Ford Helps Launch Groundbreaking Initiative to Support Working Artists with $50,000 Fellowships
NEW YORK, September 5, 2006 — The Ford Foundation and three other major foundations have helped launch a new national organization that hopes to significantly increase support for individual working artists in the United States.
The new organization, United States Artists, was launched with $20 million in start-up funding from the four foundations, including $15 million from the Ford Foundation. United States Artists (USA) is now considering some 300 candidates for its inaugural round of grants to individual artists, to be announced in December 2006.
Each of the 50 selected artists will receive a fellowship of $50,000.
"At its best, art speaks to our minds, our souls, and our human spirit," said Susan V. Berresford, president of the Ford Foundation. "Art's impact extends far beyond galleries and concert halls, fostering educational advancement, fueling economic development, and building each generation's cultural legacy. USA's investment in the creative potential of our country will yield returns for us all."
The $20 million in seed funding from the Ford, Rockefeller, Prudential and Rasmuson foundations represents an ambitious private investment in individual artists and the creative vibrancy of America. In addition to offering grants, USA will be an advocate for artists and their contributions to the social and economic health of the nation.
Of equal significance, USA offers a structure for private donors, corporate philanthropies and other donors to come together to form a permanent endowment that will support individual artists in perpetuity. Arts patrons Agnes Gund of New York, Eli Broad and Edythe Broad of Los Angeles, the Todd Simpson Foundation of Nebraska, and Target Stores have already committed to underwriting USA Fellowships for the coming years.
How It Works
For the inaugural 2006 USA Fellowships, expert panels are currently reviewing the work of more than 300 nominees representing every artistic discipline and 43 states, and ranging from 21 to 100 years of age. Recipients will be announced on December 4, 2006, in a ceremony to be held at Lincoln Center in New York City.
The program supports artists in all career stages, including emerging artists and those at mid-career, as well as individuals who have achieved master status. Fellowships will be given across a broad array of disciplines, including architecture and design, craft/traditional art, dance, literary (fiction, non-fiction, poetry), media arts (audio, film, radio video), music, performance art, theater and the visual arts.
"Every day millions of dollars are invested in venture capital in this country. We believe that supporting art at the moment of creation is a similar investment, spurring vital innovations in culture," said Katharine DeShaw, executive director for United States Artists. "USAs $50,000 grants provide artists time for research and developments; to bring forward projects that have been on the back burner, to test fresh ideas and to explore new artistic horizons."
Earlier this year, USA invited more than 150 arts leaders from every state in the nation to nominate up to five artists whose life and artistic production would be positively impacted by a $50,000 grant. Those artists were then invited to submit an application presenting a selection of their work, and describing the effect a USA Fellowship would have at this juncture of their careers. Applications are currently being reviewed by expert panels composed of artists, critics, scholars, and service leaders in the literary, media, performing and visual arts, who will then make final recommendations to the USA Board. The pools for nominators and panelists will be expanded and rotated each year, ensuring that the program taps the full spectrum of America's artistic excellence.
Why We Need Artists, and They Need Us
The formation of United States Artists was prompted by the Urban Institute's 2003 breakthrough study, Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structures for U.S. Artists. The research found that artists are an essential part of the American workforce and contribute to their communities in unique ways, yet struggle to meet their most basic needs.
While the private sector has contributed generously to cultural institutions; infrastructures - new buildings for museums, theaters, opera houses, etc. - support for individual artists remains underdeveloped and underfinanced. At the same time, their employment patterns - typified by juggling creative activities with part-time or episodic work in related or unrelated positions - mean that artists are underpaid in relation to their education, skills, and societal contributions; lack financial security; and have very limited access to the employment-related benefits of their peers. Specific findings in the Urban Institute study include:
- More than three-fourths of standard cash grants to individual artists are less than $10,000 and more than half are under $2,000.
- The median reported income for artists from their work as an artist was only $5,000. *
- 50% of artists with health insurance pay for their own coverage; in contrast 92% of insured U.S. workers are covered through their employers. *
The study also investigated the public's perceptions of artists. The most revealing finding was the paradox between the value ascribed to the artistic product as compared to the value attributed to the artists themselves.
- 96% of respondents said they were greatly inspired and moved by various kinds of art.
- However, only 27% of those respondents said that artists contribute "a lot" to the good of society. (For comparison, 63% gave that distinction to construction workers.)
At the same time, new economic evidence, educational and social research, and community-development models are continuing to reveal the vital importance of artists as they interact with these sectors.
- Numerous studies show the benefits of music, visual arts, and dance in early education for success in other academic areas, including math, reading and critical thinking. Despite this evidence, arts programs remain one of the first areas cut when schools must reduce their budgets.
- Artists work in the prison systems, at hospitals and retirement homes, with youth development and rehabilitation programs, and community development projects across the country. These social services provide unique benefits to underserved and particularly needy communities.
- In the face of a changing global economy, economists increasingly emphasize that the United States will have to rely on innovation, ingenuity, creativity, and analysis for its competitive edge - the very skills that can be enhanced by engagement with the arts.
- Artists drive the revitalization of neighborhoods throughout the U.S. and often provide energy that helps define "downtown" as cities strive to maintain their urban core. Places as diverse as Williamsburg, NY; Davenport, IA; Providence, RI; and Portland, OR are reaping the benefits of the value added as artists establish creative communities there, measured both in higher real estate values and in quality of life.
- Art can also help promote the values that make democratic societies strong - fostering an informed citizenry, dialogue about diverse viewpoints, and free expression.
The USA Fellowship program is ultimately designed to operate in perpetuity through income generated by a permanent endowment USA plans to establish. Due to the seed funding of the four founding foundations, 100% of future donor contributions will directly support artists.
Read the New York Times' coverage of United States Artists
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/arts/design/05unit.html
Visit the United States Artists Web site
http://www.unitedstatesartists.org
The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has worked with courageous people on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.