Although they remain small in number and in the value of assets they hold, artist-endowed foundations are growing in visibility, Art Newspaper reports.

The nearly three hundred artist-endowed foundations that have been identified in the United States hold assets totaling approximately $2.7 billion — a modest sum but significant within the art world, as many of these foundations focus their grantmaking on museums, arts-related research and publications, arts education, scholarships, and programs for living artists.

In part to document the role of these foundations, the Aspen Institute has released The Artist as Philanthropist; Strengthening the Next Generation of Artist-Endowed Foundations, a two-volume study based on information from 239 foundations. According to the study, artist-endowed foundations tend to be small, with 73 percent reporting assets of less than $5 million. The study also found that nearly half of all assets held by artist-endowed foundations are works of art, and that some of the more generous artist-endowed foundations have living donors. They include the New York City-based Alex Katz Foundation, which awarded $2.9 million in 2008; the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation in Spencertown, New York, which awarded $1.1 million in 2008; and the New York City-based LeRoy Neiman Foundation, which awarded $784,000 in 2008.

Still, the impact of traditional foundations on the arts is far more significant than that of artist-endowed foundations. According to the study, the thirty most active artist-endowed foundations awarded $52.5 million in grants in 2008, compared to the $54.1 million in grants for the arts awarded by the Ford Foundation and the $55.3 million awarded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

And despite the growing visibility of artist-endowed foundations, relatively few living artists are opting to establish foundations in their own name. Indeed, the average age of artists who choose to do so has risen from 64 in 1986 to 74 in 2005, while the portion of foundations established posthumously has risen from 50 percent in 1986 to 69 percent of those formed since 2000.

"To relegate philanthropic activity to a foundation to be created after the death of the artist," said Charles Bergman, chairman and CEO of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, "is to miss the opportunity of having one's own life enriched by the satisfaction of creative philanthropy."