More US artists forced to pay for their own shows as museum and culture budgets shrink

"Her dilemma is increasingly the norm rather than an exception. Across the US, artists report being called on to subsidise budgets for museum exhibitions, public commissions and even acquisitions. In some cases, opportunities evaporate entirely when the artist and organisation are unable to raise the money needed for production. Institutions want the work, but the gap between vision and execution has become the artist's burden"

"But the Fountainhead initiative alone cannot match the scale of artists' needs. In its inaugural round, Forum received 96 applications requesting a total of $1.8m in funding, more than 14 times the available grant money ($125,000). The volume and urgency of the requests forced Fountainhead's leadership to confront a reality they had been hearing about anecdotally for years: artists with confirmed institutional commitments, including at least one selected to show in the Venice Biennale, could not afford to realise the work."

""We all know how incredible these opportunities are for artists to have their work acquired by a museum-they're game changers," says Kathryn Mikesell, Fountainhead's director. "But a lot of these opportunities are underfunded for the artists." For now, Forum is the largest residency-run artist support fund in the US. Mikesell argues that its necessity reflects a broader infrastructural breakdown. "Often the first people to suffer when it comes to funding challenges are the artists themselves," she says. "It's a real conundrum, because artists generally aren't fundraisers.""

Artists with confirmed institutional commitments frequently cannot realise projects because institutions lack sufficient funds, forcing artists to subsidise budgets for exhibitions, public commissions and acquisitions. Opportunities can evaporate when artists and organisations fail to raise necessary production money. Fountainhead's Forum received 96 applications requesting $1.8m while offering $125,000, exposing a substantial shortfall. Several artists with institutional placements, including at least one Venice Biennale selection, could not afford to produce work. The gap reflects a broader infrastructural breakdown and weakened public support for the arts, leaving artists expected to take on fundraising responsibilities they are not trained for.

Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events