Grants to Painters should:
Provide an artist with a financial lift.
As a grantor, I understand the need to help painters.
I prefer supporting mid-career or emerging artists who aren't too needy.
If artists can't support themselves with their art, then I'm not going to
bail them out. I will give enough to help put up a show, or buy some new
equipment they couldn't afford otherwise. But that's it.
What's wrong with that?
Well, to begin with...
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I prefer supporting mid-career or emerging artists who aren't too
needy. If artists can't support themselves with their art, then I'm not
going to bail them out. I will give enough to help put up a show, or buy
some new equipment they couldn't afford otherwise. But that's it.
What's wrong with that?
Well, to begin with,
Painters have a terrible time making a go of it. Unless they get another
job and paint on the side, they would never survive. For financial reasons,
artists are forced to mass-produce paintings that are commercially attractive
but not necessarily meritorious, or spend much time hobnobbing to convince
someone to back their art. The result of all this is that very gifted artists
never get the time or opportunity to cultivate and mature their work.
Unlike music or theater, where gifted artists have many means of support
along various avenues, painters just don't have established pathways of
assistance that could enable them to excel. It takes years of dedicated
practice to make an artist, but support for this critical developmental
period is non-existent.
Handing out small grants only helps temporarily. Small grants are not enough
to catapult the artist to a new level, because that takes time. Applying
for a grant takes time, energy, and money too. After receiving a small grant,
the artist may not get another grant for years, in spite of tireless efforts.
No one can live on little grants. In fact, little grants are not intended
to live on. The people you grant this way are guaranteed either to be supporting
themselves doing something other than painting, or enduring a precarious
existence on family charity. Small grants only serve to perpetuate art produced
under poor circumstances. These days, it is the small grant that dominates,
and as a consequence, it plays a strong role in the weakening of painting
as an expressive art form.