Artist as Philanthropist V1 - Grantmakers in the Arts

4.3 ACTIVITIES OF ARTISTS' LIFETIMEFOUNDATIONSMany artist-endowed foundations are established after the artist's death under theprovisions of the artist's estate plan or by action of a surviving spouse or other heirs orbeneficiaries. There is also a clear pattern of artists creating foundations during theirlifetimes as a means to engage in charitable activities, either pursuing a personalphilanthropic agenda through grantmaking or undertaking a charitable project of particularinterest. Although the percentage of foundations created after artists' deaths has risen since1995, more than a third of the foundations with data available for analysis were createdduring the lifetimes of the associated artists. For the Study's purposes, foundationsestablished during artists' lifetimes, and with their founders living, are referred to as artists'lifetime foundations.In most cases, the activities of artist-endowed foundations during their founders' lifetimesare distinctly different from the same foundations' activities after the artists' deaths. Forexample, the assets of artists' lifetime foundations typically do not include artists' ownintellectual properties or artists' own artworks. These types of art assets usually areconveyed to the foundation by bequest and, once received, influence a foundation'scharitable activities in a variety of ways (for example, if they are intended as charitable-useresources for direct charitable activities). As another example, artists' lifetime foundationsthat were vehicles for their founders' personal philanthropy are likely to formalizegrantmaking after the artist's death. In light of these differences, it is useful to look at theactivities of artists' lifetime foundations as a specific category.This chapter reviews a representative sample of charitable activities undertaken by artists'lifetime foundations. Examples include activities of artists' lifetime foundations in priordecades, both foundations that continue to exist today and those that were terminatedsubsequently, along with activities of artists' lifetime foundations currently. 1 An importantrelated topic, governance and conflict of interest considerations for artists with lifetimefoundations, is discussed in Section 7. Forming, Sustaining, and TerminatingFoundations. That discussion also notes artists' considerations in choosing lifetime orposthumous establishment of a foundation.Foundation ResourcesFoundations created during an artist's lifetime typically receive annual or periodic financialcontributions from their founders and often make grants or expend funds for programs orspecial projects equal to the contributions received. Artists' lifetime foundations operatingon this type of pass-through basis usually are modest in scale. Roughly one-third ofPart A. Findings: Overview of the Field 125