Artists Find Benefactors in Web Crowd
From Patricia Cohen at The New York Times:
Recently United States Artists in Los Angeles, a nonprofit that supports American artists, began USA Projects, and New York Foundation for the Arts started Artspire, two nonprofit variations of online crowd-funding devoted solely to artists or fledgling cultural groups.
“This mass microphilanthropy is a really interesting phenomenon,” said Ruby Lerner, president of Creative Capital, a nonprofit that offers artists financial and career support. “We advise all our artists to do it.” Personal contributions — whether from the Medicis, village parishioners or passers-by who toss money into a busker’s hat — have always been the primary way artists have supported their work.