Many profitable individuals have time to plan their legacies, however the closing months of nancy graves’ life have been chaotic. In Might 1995, the 55-year-old sculptor, painter and printmaker was identified with ovarian most cancers, and 5 months later, she was lifeless. With no heirs, she needed to determine rapidly what to do along with her belongings and wealth. Like many different artists with vital holdings of paintings and different property, she created a nonprofit basis by her will to shelter her property from excessive demise taxes. However what kind of basis ought to this be? What would its goal be?
Most artists’ foundations serve the posthumous pursuits of the artists, as trustees and directors prepare exhibitions of their work, put together a list raisonné, stock paintings and make paperwork and archival materials out there to students. The Henry Moore Basis in England, as an illustration, was arrange in 1977 to “advance the training of the general public by selling their appreciation of the advantageous arts, significantly the work of Henry Moore.” In considerably extra inflated language, the inspiration created by Salvador Dalí in 1983 in Spain goals to “promote, increase, reveal, lend status to, shield and defend in Spain and in another nation the creative, cultural and mental oeuvre of the painter… and the common recognition of his contribution to the Superb Arts, tradition and up to date thought.”
Distinction that with Graves, who modeled her thought of a basis on these established by Adolph Gottlieb and Lee Krasner, whose main goal is to offer grant awards to artists in want.
Fifty and even 30 years in the past, there have been far fewer artists’ foundations. Nonetheless, “post-1960 artists have achieved significantly better than many earlier artists who typically didn’t have the wherewithal to arrange a basis,” stated Sanford Hirsch, government director of the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Basis, which has been offering particular person assist and emergency grants to artists since 1977, the 12 months after the inspiration started its operations. “The Gottlieb Basis Particular person Help Grant program has been working yearly since and at the moment affords awards of $25,000 every to twenty artists.” The muse’s emergency grant program, which helps artists who’ve suffered a current catastrophic occasion and lack the sources to satisfy ensuing wants, supplies one-time grants of $15,000.
Adolph Gottlieb’s will stipulated the creation of a basis to help “mature, inventive painters and sculptors… who ought to in any other case lack monetary sources.” Different artists have taken observe. Late in her life, Lee Krasner sought to create a basis to guard her artwork and that of her late husband Jackson Pollock from being unexpectedly bought or donated to museums to keep away from property taxes, in addition to to teach the general public on their respective creative achievements. Nonetheless, it was solely when her lawyer, Jerry Dickler, reminded her that “however for the grace of God, she might need needed to apply to a basis for a grant, if any basis like which may have existed,” that she determined the principle exercise of the Pollock-Krasner Basis needs to be supporting artists. Since 1985, greater than 5,000 artists in 79 nations have obtained roughly $87 million in grants.
Some households or boards of artists’ foundations that supply particular person awards work to provide construction to the artist’s intentions. The grant program on the George and Helen Segal Basis was designed by the artist’s widow and daughter based mostly on his “want to be useful to artists,” stated Rena Segal, the sculptor’s daughter and vice chairman of the inspiration. The need of painter Joan Mitchell indicated a want “to assist painters and sculptors,” in response to Christa Blatchford, government director of the New York Metropolis-based Joan Mitchell Basis. Nonetheless, the mechanism for supporting artists—by nomination relatively than software—and the quantity of assist ($60,000 per artist over 5 years, with 15 artists chosen yearly), in addition to a second program providing paid residencies ($600 monthly for one to 5 months) on the Joan Mitchell Heart in New Orleans, have been devised by the board.
Artists typically have a selected thought of whom they need to assist. Judith Rothschild (1921-93), for instance, was a comparatively obscure painter whose most critically acclaimed work got here within the closing six years of her life. The daughter of a rich furnishings producer, she inherited a group of College of Paris artists from her dad and mom. Upon her demise, she established a basis geared toward supporting the conservation, documentation, publication, museum acquisition and exhibition of under-recognized artists—these she believed shared her destiny.
Equally, Nancy Graves wished to assist artists like herself. Her basis’s grant program supplies monetary help to artists experimenting with supplies and strategies, “who want to have the chance to grasp a way, medium or self-discipline that’s totally different from the one wherein she or he is primarily acknowledged,” in response to the inspiration’s web site. Graves herself was typically criticized for working throughout disciplines—from polychrome sculptures to the vividly painted items she is finest identified for, in addition to images, movie, set and costume design, and portray, the medium wherein she earned her MFA. By means of her basis, she hoped to encourage others to do the identical.
With little time left, Graves did what she might to assist fellow artists. She donated her 5,000-book library to the Millay Colony for the Arts in Austerlitz, New York, and her artwork provides to an artwork college in Santa Fe. As for her monetary property, she acknowledged the necessity for extra direct grants to artists.
The Tradition Wars—shorthand for the sharply polarized debates within the U.S. between conservatives and progressives over social points— have led to a steep decline in congressional assist for the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts. This included the elimination of most particular person artist fellowships within the Nineteen Eighties and ’90s, adopted by cutbacks at many state arts companies. Extra lately, in Might 2025, the NEA abruptly terminated lots of of grants to arts organizations nationwide.
In 2003, state arts companies in 37 states offered fellowships to artists. That quantity dropped to 29 by 2014, in response to analysis from the Nationwide Meeting of State Arts Businesses. Whole fellowships fell from 1,300 in 1994 to 762 in 2007. In the meantime, mixed fellowship and venture grant funding to particular person artists from state companies declined from $10.18 million in 2003 to $6.77 million in 2015. As of now, 32 state arts companies supply fellowships for particular person artists. Of those, 27 present direct, unrestricted funding and 5 associate with exterior organizations to manage fellowships.
“These fellowships are a big supply of grant funding for particular person artists,” Eddie Torres, president and chief government officer of Grantmakers within the Arts, informed Observer. He famous that state arts companies have considerably elevated assist over the previous decade, investing $38.1 million in 2023. Fellowship awards now vary from $250 to $50,000, with a median award of $5,000. “State arts companies assist particular person artists by a broad portfolio of grants and providers, to the tune of about $38 million per 12 months, or round 1 / 4 of all state arts company grant awards,” stated Kelly J. Barsdate, government advisor to the Nationwide Meeting of State Arts Businesses.
It is a marked enchancment, however the want stays nice. Over the previous 20 years, a rising variety of artists have established foundations throughout their lifetimes or as a part of their estates, with the principal mission of awarding grants or fellowships to particular person artists.
Demand stays excessive. When the George and Helen Segal Basis was established in 2000, its grant program was initially open to artists worldwide. “We have been flooded with purposes,” Rena Segal informed Observer. The muse quickly restricted eligibility to New York and New Jersey residents, and ultimately solely to artists in New Jersey. In recent times, it ended the grants program altogether to deal with selling George Segal’s legacy by analysis and exhibitions. “Many artist-endowed foundations have sundown provisions,” Blatchford famous, including that the Joan Mitchell Basis established an endowment to keep up its grants program in perpetuity.
The Aspen Institute, a coverage analysis group in Washington, D.C., has recognized greater than 500 artist-endowed foundations, holding a number of billion {dollars} in mixture property, in response to Christine J. Vincent, managing director of the Institute’s Artist-Endowed Foundations Initiative. A few of these foundations supply direct grants to artists or work with nonprofit organizations to offer awards by basis funds. Others underwrite artist residencies. Their numbers are rising, Vincent informed Observer, with some foundations “on the shelf, awaiting the artist’s passing.” Amongst these are the (Judy) Chicago (Don) Woodman Basis, the Janet Fish Basis, the (Joyce Kozloff) Crossed Functions Basis and the Pat Steir Basis.
