One of the questions posed in Module 3 is on the relationship between art and corporations – can corporations be art projects?
A recent NY Times article profiled the work of ArtLifting, a for-profit company that partners with homeless and disabled artists to exhibit and sell their work. The start up was begun by brother and sister Spencer and Liz Powers after Liz began working with the nonprofit LIFT, who offer support and services to the homeless throughout the country, as a sophomore.
According to ArtLifting’s website, the company describes themselves as a “benefit corporation”. Artists earn 55% of the profit from their work, and the rest of the company’s income comes from venture capitalists and angel investors, a model that aims to avoid “an endless series of grants and fund-raising to sustain the business.”
In another shift towards the corporate, ArtLifting is particularly focused on selling the artworks to corporations for aesthetic and decorative purposes.
ArtLifting is an example of the type of corporate partnership that could become a larger part of the art world in future years. AftLifting suggests that corporations can, in fact, be art projects, in the most literal sense of the term as well as more figurative senses. This type of partnership does call for careful examination of the role and definition of ‘social justice’ that is used by companies like ArtLifting. While working with homeless and disabled artists may lead many to immediately describe the company as a form of social justice, it is important to consider that they are still taking 45% of the income from sales. For the artists, is 55% really enough to make a substantial change in their quality of life? This will perhaps only be evident over time as the company expands and the relationship between company and artists spans a longer range of time.
To read the NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/business/smallbusiness/homeless-artists-gallery-artlifting.html?_r=0
To learn more about ArtLifiting:http://www.artlifting.com/