Artists’ economic contributions have always been overlooked and they are among the most vulnerable groups in the society facing challenges in achieving financial stability. According to a Columbia University Research Center for Art and Culture report, nearly one-third of artists earn less than $3,000 a year from their work as artists and about two-thirds earn below a middle-class income with very little of it coming from their work. Recently, Mutual Art, a New York-based group of academicians and museum experts, announced the commencement of the first ever pension trust for visual artists. Mutual Art is the brainchild of Moti Shniberg, a young entrepreneur who lives in New York and Tel Aviv and is now the President of Mutual Art. Of late, artists’ contributions are being noticed and with the increasing recognition and efforts of Mutual Art, it seems that the artists will soon enjoy a secured old age.
Artist Pension Trust (APT) is the first ever retirement trust program created specifically to provide emerging and midcareer artists with long-term financial security. “According to the initial plans, a limited series of APTs comprising of 250 artists each will be formed in cities and regions throughout the US and in select art centers around the world,” says Pamela Auchincloss, Director, Artist Pension Trust, New York. In each region a selection committee comprising of individuals having experience of working with emerging artists will be created and they will identify artists to be invited to apply for participation in these trusts. Only self-employed artists can participate in APT. This retirement scheme is a barterbased program where participating artists will contribute their work of art rather than cash to the trust—a total of 20 works over a 20-year period. Each artist will contribute two pieces of artwork a year for the first five years, one piece per year for the next five years, and then one every alternate year until he or she has contributed 20. Artists will start receiving the income 20 years after the inception of their trust. Each artist will establish his own personal trust account, and the artwork contributed by the artist will be held for him in his trust. Income for payments to the participants will come from the sale of works held by a trust. There are no other fees for the artists apart from Mutual Art keeping 20% as charges from the sale of an artwork. Half of what’s left will go to the individual artist’s own retirement benefit account. The other half will be divided equally among all the artists in the trust. “Each artist receives an equal share of the pooled funds generated by the sale of works held in a trust, thereby benefitting from the collective success of all of the artists in a trust. Additionally, each artist is rewarded in proportion to individual market success, since 50% of the net proceeds of the sale of his work are invested in individual benefit accounts,” maintains Shniberg.