In response to a post about Dale and Leslie Chihuly giving Artist Trust $150,000 for two $25,000 grants to Washington State artists in any discipline annually for three years, Juan Alonso observed:
I know whenever I say anything regarding auctions I get a lot of folks who misunderstand my point. To be clear, I am a huge fan of Artist Trust, in fact, I am currently trying to create a scholarship fund for one of their programs, so do don’t get your undies in a bunch about this. It’s just an opinion.
So here goes: When I was on the PONCHO art acquisition committee, one of my suggestions was that all the proceeds from the visual art auction go to visual art organizations and that the other disciplines should do their own “donating for fundraisers” but my idea did not fly. As a visual artist, I would love to afford to go to the opera and the ballet and the symphony and I do want them all to thrive but I have little access to any of them. Any ballet dancer, opera singer of symphony musician can go to any gallery and some museums (at least on certain days) for free yet I don’t see any of these organizations (Ballet, Opera, Symphony, etc), individually or collectively, doing anything to benefit the visual arts.
The boundaries between disciplines are porous, and artists work freely across them. The essential thing about artists is that they are artists. Artist Trust embraces and supports all equally. But visual artists are most likely to create a product that can be sold. For that reason, they are the ones who support all others through the Artist Trust auction.
Hence, Alonso’s excellent point. It’s worth noting, however, that Leslie Chihuly is head of the Seattle Symphony’s board of directors. She is more likely to favor an all disciplines approach. A cynical version of the Golden Rule (S/he who makes the gold makes the rules) isn’t always true.
I need arts money. I gave at least 3 projects where I could have assistants do a majority of the work. I’ll finish them. or at least write my name on them.
Juan and Regina are correct to remind the readers that the visual artists end up being the philanthropists who support so many other art forms. That’s the trouble with making the physical goods.
I love Artist Trust for all that it does for all kinds of artists. But, what the visual artists is Seattle do for others cannot be denied. They have been most generous.
And what Dale and Leslie Chihuly have done with these grants, (like Yvonne Twining Humber before them) is to enable other artists to be successful by not having to produce commercial goods for a moment or so. So very generous a gesture is rare in this current moment of diminishing patronage.
Bravo and thank you to the Chihulys! Their generosity should indeed be applauded and encouraged. No one’s opinion on whatever subject should take away from their beautiful gesture. That was never my intent through my comments.
When I posted both Regina’s and Jen Graves’ blog on my facebook page, I got a lot of comments which were reactionary at best, either in defense/attacks of auctions or other randome thoughts that had little to do with the post, so once again, because I must have some disease of not being able to quietly stifle myself, I put forth some questions:
Is it possible that artists of other (non-visual) disciplines are not given the opportunity to contribute as much? Would they like to play a more equal part in fund-raising for the arts? How could that be suggested or encouraged? Could organizations (of all types) be capable of brainstorming different ways of raising funds other than the pyramid-style of taking from the wider bottom of the group to give to the top few of that same group? Is the generosity of art patrons limited to when they get (specifically) visual art in return? Could there be other incentives including using other art disciplines in some way? Can there be a discussion that doesn’t turn into attack and defense?
The times I have felt the most growth as a human is when I have been enlightened to another’s point of view, so I’m inviting differences of opinion but I request that those differences remain respectful and dignified.
Thanks.