Greenpoint Gazette article: "Art and Economics: Trust Art"

Talisa Chang, a reporter for the Greenpoint Gazette, published a profile of Trust Art in time for the New Year.  Here's the intro and link :

From installing a perfume-filled Humanity Fountain in McGolrick Park to turning a dilapidated street in Brooklyn into a park in Bushwick, healing Newtown Creek spiritually, creating a pop-up art school in Sergeant Dougherty Park, creating a self-sufficient house in the Dominican Republic out of New York Waste, setting up a bamboo bicycle building business in sub-Saharan Africa, creating giant pre-historic monuments off the coast of Maine, and finding dreamers in Berlin, Tokyo, New Mexico, and Johannesburg, the Trust Art organization’s projects aren’t lacking in ambition.

But with resumes boasting serious experience in art and economics, financial and in-kind support streaming in, and a nod from TED, which asked them to present at the annual conference in February, Trust Art founders Jose Serrano-Reyes, 30 and Seth Aylmer, 27 seem up to the challenge.

Trust Art takes the Kiva model of micro financing and the gift economy, and applies it to funding large-scale collaborative public art projects. Shareholders donate money, time, materials, and connections to the Trust Art projects, and as the projects are completed, they receive their donations back from other members of the Trust Art community.

Read the rest of the Greenpoint Gazette article.

http://www.greenpointnews.com/news/art-and-economics-trust-art

Trust Art is nominated to THE NEW YORK 100

All Day Buffet has put together a wonderful list of 100 social innovation projects happening right now in NYC. We are honored to be a part of it! Go check it out here: The New York 100

Trust Art NYC Fundraiser Event - May 12

Dear Shareholders, and people interested in Trust Art:

Over the past three months, since launching our prototype at TED, we have listened to your feedback and have been hard at work redesigning the Trust Art website, making it more clear and navigable, adding content and definition to the project profiles, and making the overall shareholder experience more socially rewarding.

We have also formed several key partnerships with organizations like the Open Space Alliance and the NYC Parks Department to place several of the projects on public park land. To celebrate and unveil these accomplishments, and to progress our fundraising momentum in New York, we would like to extend an invitation to you and your friends to a fundraiser event for Trust Art.

The intimate event will be next Tuesday, May 12. It will be full of art and 'art happenings', we will unveil our newly improved website, and everyone will receive a beautiful piece of art to take home.

There are a limited number of tickets available at $101. This is an opportunity to become a Trust Art shareholder if you are not already one. Proceeds from the event count towards shares in your name in the ten inuagural public art projects commissioned by Trust Art. If you are already a shareholder, this is the time to reaffirm your belief in the transformative power of public art.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

with infinite gratitude,

Trust Art

High School Field Trip to Trust Art

Fame Theory had the great pleasure of having a brainstorming session with six bright, young stars from from The Bronx Guild High School about Trust Art. We also were fortunate that Trust Artist Facundo Newbery dropped by just in time for an impromptu presentation about his project, which had the kids both laughing and volunteering their time to the cause of sustainable homebuilding.

It was really a defining moment in the life of Trust Art to have the kids get excited the way they did about art and social good, and this project for bringing those things together. We recommend henceforth: always double check your model with the kids. And always listen to your teacher (Dana Luria was masterful at keeping us all on track).

Here are some notes from the young ones, and some pictures:

Dear Seth and Jose,
thank you for allowing us to visit you organization. I had lot of fun.
i also learned a lot about some cool projects which some people are
working on to make a sustainable community for others. I would like to
visit another day and learn how i can get involve with some of these
projects.

Imlaque Chowdhury

Dear Jose N Seth,

I wanted to send you this thank you note/letter to you thanking you for yesterday. I had fun makin you guys laugh. I would really like it if you guys came to our school and showd all the students what you showed us yesterday.Well thanks 4 having us and hope 2 see u again.

From matthew

I will like to thank you for allowing the Bronx Guild students an opportunity to pass by and see what the place is about.I love the idea of what different artists are doing.I lovethe idea of the perfume called humanity. Having to remember a memory over a perfume is a great thing. The idea of sending different supplies to the Dominican republic to give them electricity and gas is a awesome idea. I’m glad that people are willing to help my country. Having a chance to help you guys out would be a great experience and it’s a great feeling to be part of these projects. Hopefully I get to see everyone again soon. It was nice meeting everyone there.

Thanks, Ginette Castillo

Hey Jose, Seth and Jen its Kathy. I just wanted to thank you all for letting us go visit you guys at Fame Game/Trust Art. It was really funand cool to hear what you guys are all about. It was also great to see a little bit of what Brooklyn is like. I really liked all the art work ya had around the place itespecially thechandelier made of needles. I like how ya help other artists become more famous and all. Thank you again.

Dear Seth and Jose,

I am writing to thank you that I had a really good time on Wednesday. I hope to go back and learn how to create my own page on the Web. I really had a fun day. Maybe I will come back and visit sometime.

Sincerely, Nick Santiago

heyi wanted to say thank you for everything yesterday i had a lot of fun and i learn different stuff too. i never knew people did so much to try to make a change in the world just to help a little. It really help me understand alot about peoples and how other people in other countryneed help too. i also really like the place it was so nice and warm, it was nice meeting you Jose,Seth and Jen your truley

gianna

IF ANYTHING, THIS IS A GENERATIONAL THING.

Recent Press on Trust Art

Here are the most recent musings on the internet:

From the TED blog:

Seth Aylmer and Jose Serrano-Reyes took the TEDDIY stage today to tell us about TrustArt.org, a new organization whose goal is to bring a microfinance model into the art world.

From Fast Company:

Trust Art remains a potentially ingenuous alternative to the difficult process of earning public grants.

From Urban Daddy:

Trust Me: The Only Investment Opportunity Left

The market's been downright unnerving lately, and it's time you found something new to do with your reserves…other than scotch. So we're making the boldest move we can come up with. That's right, we're investing in art.

From PSFK:
There doesn’t appear to be a guaranteed return on investment, but it does seem more fun to follow than your retirement fund.

From Media Bistro:

Maybe it's time we all just trusted in art? One dollar? Why not?

From Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists:
I love it. Will it work? I have my usual skeptical questions: Who are these investors? How will they find Trust Art? Will they invest sight unseen in any of the sponsored projects because they love and trust Trust Art? We'll watch and wait (and hope!)

From Guest of a Guest:
This seems like it might be a fun way to open up the experience of being an “patron of the arts,” while harnessing the power and ease of social networking to promote these projects - it’s assumed the multiple investors will “spread the word” to all their friends.

From The Apartment:
Art, funded by art lovers, doesn't that sounds at least like part of the solution? first coming to prominence with famegame.com, these handsome kids are putting the algorithm to good use. help them help you!

From Brooklyn the Borough:

It’s a bit unclear how investors will recoup their money or even make a profit on these projects, but it’s nice to see that, even outside of this project, art is taking a front row seat in our previously Wall Street dominated culture.

From Mental Shavings:

One problem—if it is one—I probably chose the project I invested in based more on its commercial potential than solely on its artistic merit.

From L'Atelier US:

The project draws attention to the power of the basis for fame: social networking before we had invented it. It also reminds us of the autonomy of both Art and the Internet, by not asking for a bailout but instead crowd-sourcing necessary capital.

From Art Market Blog:

The Trust Art project is a sort of interactive art fund that gives people the opportunity to invest their money in one of ten social art projects by ten different artists.

From Excelsion (Mexico City Newspaper):

Even of the works dont net thousands of dollars, the project demonstrates that there is a way to bring together people who think differently.

From Next Great Thing:

It’s a fascinating way to rethink capitalism. The same generation that undermined the current media model through peer-2-peer networks is looking to revive it by subverting the failed financial model of it’s predecessors. It makes sense. This is the “Creative Class,” they value art and invention. Naturally they’d look to make this value monetary, i.e. sustainable.

From Takepart:

[Trust Art] is betting that the capitalist stock market paradigm that forced the art market into its downward spiral may be the key to preserving it.

Trust Art FAQs

What makes you think the time is now?
We think it is precisely the time, when our old financial system is collapsing, that new systems, if even on a small scale, are introduced that can finance projects for a brighter future. In this case, specifically financing social and public art that sends a signal of collective unity and progress.

How much money are the projects raising?
Each artist was given the freedom to propose their dream project, and to realistically assess what it would take to bring it to life. The total funding goal includes an assessment by each artist of their time spent on the project, as well as the cost of material, travel, and other logistics of bringing the work to life.

How do the investors get paid back?
People who contribute financially towards a project become shareholders of that project. When the finished artwork of each project is auctioned in the Spring of 2010, the 'first monies in' from the auction are used to pay for the auction, then to pay back shareholders (relative to their individual contributions), then the rest is split 50/50 between the artist and the network of shareholders (relative to their individual contributions).

What happens if an artist does not get to the funding goal?

Openness and adaptability are an important part of trust and art.  In fact, our goal is to actually complete all the project under budget as the network of shareholders becomes active in seeking connections for the projects. At the end of the day, each artist will complete a work of art with the capital raised.

Can social networking increase the value of art?

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. As social art is circulated through society it gains this value because social art is, in essence, a gift. And gifting is a brilliant way of building and sharing social capital.

What is “The Trust” page on each project?
This page shows the total financial and social capital raised for each project, as well as the names of the shareholders (the most significant contributors are highlighted). The Trust Art Index is a quantitative success metric for each project that plays off of the basic stock market metric (% change). At any given time, it is derived from the combined slopes of the financial and social capital trendlines.

What is social capital?

'Social capital' is a term used to describe the value that accrues through the bonds that bind groups together. Sometimes those groups consist of relatively homogeneous people (more bonding); something they comprise more heterogeneous people (more bridging capital). A tightly bonded group has more social capital than a weakly bonded one. Notably, unlike other forms of capital (economic, cultural) social capital is not depleted by use (you can’t ‘spend it’ like $$$) but is rather depleted by non-use (if the group doesn’t work together the level of capital decreases as a result.

How were the artists selected?
The 10 artists were all nominated by people close to Fame Theory, who knew them to be planning large, social and public artworks.

Are you opening it up to more people?
We have chosen 10 artists to be part of the inaugural program, something that we will learn a lot from. In time, we will invite more artists to participate and ultimately, Trust Art will exist as a an open platform where any artist can propose their dream project.

Trust Art prototype unveilled at TED Palm Springs

It has been our honor and pleasure to have the opportunity to ‘unveil’ the Trust Art website among such a magnificent group of people in Palm Springs. The market has now officially opened- and the wider world is invited to come join us in this experiment. All you need in order to purchase shares is a passion for the arts and one dollar to invest.

We look forward to building a community with you that values freedom of expression and heralds a brighter creative future. We also now begin the task of working on the art itself – and look forward to your participation in its birth.