Hard on the heels of our story about ArtPrize comes news of another
artistic endeavour that's tapping the power of the crowds. It's not
contest-judging that the crowds will have a hand in this time,
however; rather, through a microfinance model much like the stock
market, consumers can invest in—and profit from—public art projects
they like.
Unveiled earlier this year at TED Palm Springs by New York media
company Fame Theory, Trust Art is a social platform that aims to
commission 10 public works of art over the next year. A select group
of artists were invited to propose their dream projects and to
realistically assess what it would take to bring their projects to
life—including material costs, travel and other logistical expenses.
The Trust Art website includes descriptions of those projects and
costs, along with current updates. Each project is then assigned a
certain number of shares—equal to twice its funding target—and half of
those shares are automatically assigned to the participating artist.
The rest are put up for sale, and consumers are invited to become
shareholders in any project with as little as USD 1, giving them
access to the artists and network of shareholders as well as special
events. Next spring, each public project will be represented by a
private piece of art that will be publicly auctioned. Proceeds from
those sales will first go toward paying for the auction and paying
back shareholders relative to their individual contributions; after
that, the rest will be split 50/50 between the artists and the network
of shareholders—again, relative to how much they originally invested.
The initiative's website explains: "Trust Art is a radical experiment
in raising capital for social art. Its starting point is the assertion
that social art can more easily raise social capital (i.e. networks of
people interested in and talking about it), and therefore it should be
able to more easily raise financial capital (because this is more
easily raised as groups grow). So Trust Art exploits social networks
of people (some already connected, some newly connected) to add value
to social art."
Ultimately, Trust Art hopes to exist as an ongoing open platform
whereby any artist can propose a dream project and get funded by the
crowds. One to watch--or get involved with?
Website: www.trustart.org
Contact: info@trustart.org
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- Tan Yinglan
The Way of the VC: Having Top Venture Capitalists on Your Board (On Amazon)
http://tinyurl.com/wayofthevc
