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.