Today (6 August), in celebration of what would have been Andy Warhol’s 96th birthday, his foundation has announced a unique grant programme that will sell numerous Warhol works from its collection to help dozens of US visual arts organisations fundraise.
Dubbed the Philanthropy Factory, the initiative will provide recent grantees of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts with all proceeds from the sale of hundreds of the artist's works being offered on the foundation's eBay for Charity page. Each grantee will receive the money from the sale of at least four pieces, with the trove spanning photographs, prints and posters priced between $250 and $20,000 each. The foundation hopes to generate a total of almost $1.5m to benefit 74 organisations.
Warhol’s screenprint-on-wallpaper Cow (1971) is selling for $20,000 © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
“The foundation is proud to celebrate its founder’s philanthropic vision and forward-thinking spirit with this creative, mission-focused initiative that has the potential to meaningfully support artist-centred organisations of all sizes across the country,” Michael Dayton Hermann, the director of licencing at the foundation and the lead on this new project, said in a statement. “Philanthropy Factory recognises the power of solidarity and celebrates the exceptional work of the foundation’s grantees through this fundraising initiative using dynamic works from the foundation’s collection.”
One of the organisations funded by the online sale of Warhol’s works will be New York’s Dia Art Foundation. Dia’s director, Jessica Morgan, said in a statement: “This ambitious new endeavour highlights how central visual art and artists are to so many communities across the country, and how crucial the foundation’s expanding work in supporting arts organisations is.”
Warhol’s photograph Debbie Harry and Chris Stein (1980) is selling for $7,000 © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Established in accordance with Warhol's will upon his death in 1987, the Warhol Foundation is dedicated to funding contemporary art throughout the US. Over the years, it has given out cash grants totaling almost $300m to artists, arts organisations and curators with an eye towards the experimental and under-recognised.