Artist Pension Trust Barter�s To Provide Financial Security

A pension program created by the Artist Pension Trust (APT), has been created to provide artists with long-term financial security in exchange for their works of art.

The premise is unusual. Selected artists pool their works, contributing 20 pieces over 20 years in exchange for receiving an income stream as the trust sells the works.

APT was established three years ago by New York-based Mutual Art, Inc., an independent company formed to develop new financial service products for the art world. It now has regional trusts in New York, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Beijing and Mexico City, with more planned.

Creative Capital, Fractured Atlas Other Options

Another organization for artists is Creative Capital, which tries to supply the financial grounding as it applies the model of venture capital to the arts. Artists are given seed money for projects in exchange for a percentage of any profits. Since it has a stake in the project�s success, it offers artists support services such as strategic planning and workshops in managing finances.

The New York-based nonprofit has not only given out over $6 million to 242 artists, an average of $25,000 to $35,000 per project, it has also trained more than 1,000 artists in career planning, money and time management, and goal-setting at its workshops.

Fractured Atlas, a nine-year-old organization, is another group that provides a variety of support services to individual artists and arts organizations...perhaps most notably health insurance.