Artist Pension Trust

[Dover]

http://www.artistpensiontrust.org/manage_profiles.asp

I guess it's not exactly news as these two articles are from 2004:

July 20, 2004
A New Pension Fund for Struggling Artists
By JULIE SALAMON

imone Shubuck didn't find working in her Lower East Side studio without a bathroom a bit romantic. Actually, she found it weird that visiting dealers and collectors always declared her bohemian deprivation "absolutely charming." As time passed, Ms. Shubuck, now 34, found herself yearning for prosaic luxuries like a toilet, health insurance, a pension plan.

"A 401(k), having taxes taken out, things other people don't have to think about," she said wistfully. "As you get older it's hard to live without that kind of stuff."

SoHo galleries have long since given way to pricey shoe stores. Art has merged with fashion, media and real estate in bottom-line reckoning, and it's hard for artists not to think about money. Now the commodity-trading mentality of the art investment world has produced a scheme intended to assure artists like Ms. Shubuck some long-term financial stability — while making money for investors.

The Artist Pension Trust invites up-and-coming artists to contribute 20 pieces of their work to a tax-protected fund over a 20-year period on the theory that some of the art will appreciate significantly. All the artists will share the profits, even if their initial promise never translates into increased value...cont'd

http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/visualarts/NYT-NewPensionFundforStrugglingArtists-7-20-04.hrml.htm


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/05/28/BUG446T5BS1.DTL

[Courtesy Flush]

1. I looked up Shubuck's work

She should get a job if she wants benefits. Ten-year-olds draw like this, and they don't get pensions.