Artist Pension Trust
Encyclopedia
The Artist Pension Trust (APT) is a for-profit organization that was started by entrepreneur Moti Shniberg and economist Dan Galai in 2004. Former SFMOMA and Whitney Museum director David A. Ross was its founding President. The purpose of the organization is to provide long-term financial security to artists who otherwise may not have a retirement plan. Artist Pension Trust (APT) is the first investment program created specifically to provide emerging and mid-career artists with a long-term financial planning opportunity through the collective contribution of their artworks.
Each Trust consists of up to 250 artists, signing 50 artists per year over a five-year period. APT consists of eight individual Trusts, developed around 8 major art centers: New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
and Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
.
Participating artists deposit 20 works of art over a fifteen to twenty-year period. The ownership of the artworks is retained by the artists, while the APT Collection is stored and insured by APT until the work is sold. The collection can be viewed online, and is made available to curators and institutions for exhibition during this period. Artists do not have to pay for any of these services up front. The APT model ensures that upon the sale of artworks every artist benefits from participation on an annual basis: 40 percent of the net proceeds derived from the sale of an artwork will go straight to the artist whose work was sold; 32 percent will go into a Pool from which all artists will receive a pro-rata share tied to their artwork investments; 28 percent is retained by APT to cover operational costs.
The growing collection currently stands at 4,000 artworks and represents more than 1,000 artists from over 50 countries. APT Curatorial is an artwork lending program and exhibition planning service that offers curators and museums access to APT's extensive holdings of contemporary art from around the world. APT Curatorial simplifies the exhibition process by providing a diverse selection of artworks to lend as well as fully curated exhibitions. Through the APT website at www.aptglobal.org, curators can browse the collection, research artists, and initiate the loan process.
APT is owned by MutualArt, a privately held company with its office at 153 W 27th St, in New York City. Since March 2008 APT has been headed by Pamela Auchincloss, its CEO. Each Trust has its own Director. As of July 2009, Director of APT New York is Pamela Auchincloss, APT Los Angeles is Irene Tsatsos, APT London is Kirsty Ogg and Gerrie van Noord, APT Berlin is Susanne Prinz, APT Mumbai is Pamela Auchincloss as interim director, APT Beijing is Kyongfa Che and Sunyoung Oh, APT Mexico City is Pilar Tompkins and APT Dubai is November Paynter.