Painting Change

When you hear the term Artist-Endowed Foundation, you expect the grant recipients to be for museums, arts-related research, publications, arts education, scholarships and programs for living artists. And you would be correct, mostly. The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, which has provided $65 million in grants since its inception in 1985, recently announced a new annual award of $50,000, the Pollock Prize For Creativity. And the Andy Warhol Foundation remains a critical financial lifeline to beleaguered small and experimental arts organizations. However, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation not only supports artists but has taken the lead in framing the arts as a means to address mass incarceration. What started this trend? The fact that artists are now seeing great commercial success during their lifetimes rather than decades or centuries later; PKF.org; WarholFoundation.org; RauschenbergFoundation.org.