In 1970, Robert Rauschenberg established Change, Inc., an emergency fund to help artists struggling with unexpected expenses from medical bills to overdue rent. Financed through sales of artworks donated by Rauschenberg and his peers, the initiative offered an early model of artist-led patronage, channeling funds directly to artists in need.

But artist-led patronage extends far beyond emergency financial assistance. Some artists create scholarships and support arts education and career advancement through foundations. Others avidly collect work by younger and lesser-known artists, who receive not only a financial boost but also a potentially career-launching stamp of approval. Still others have established residencies, mentorship programs, and networks of international exchange, or have fostered local communities. These structures can overlap (some foundations run residencies, for instance), and they are often shaped by the artists’ own experiences, from the opportunities that helped them establish their careers to the difficulties they encountered along the way.

Art Basel spoke to five artists about what motivates them to support others, and what they believe artists need most.

Foundations: Frank Bowling

Frank Bowling’s life changed when he won a scholarship to study at London’s Royal College of Art alongside David Hockney and R.B. Kitaj. Since then, he has worked to extend that same opportunity to others, supporting postgraduate scholarships at the University of the Arts London and the Royal Academy of Arts, ‘so that someone with the talent and the drive gets the same chance I had.’

In 2024, he established the Frank Bowling Foundation, which works closely with local schools and libraries, inviting children, families, and community groups into his studio and archive. ‘Art does not belong only to people who already feel at home in galleries and art schools. When people see a studio as a working place, art stops feeling remote.’ Equally important is giving young people the opportunity to make art themselves. ‘When you find you can do something, and do it well, it builds confidence that will carry you through the years when doubt creeps in. I have always needed that willingness to experiment, and I still see it most clearly in young children.’

‘Art education needs a revolution,’ he continues, ‘one that puts freedom to experiment at its center. For me, that freedom came through abstract painting: chucking, spilling, dripping, and throwing paint at the canvas. Mark-making is a first-order activity, crucial to humanity, and we should do everything we can to foster creativity in whatever form it takes.’

Other artist foundations: Judy Chicago (Through the Flower), Olafur Eliason (Little Sun Foundation), Damien Hirst (Hirst Foundation)

Residencies: Julie Mehretu

Artist-run residencies offer artists time and space to develop their work, often less bound by art-market pressures or the expectations of institutional programs. For Julie Mehretu, that independence is central to Denniston Hill, a residency set amid 220 acres of farmland and protected forest in upstate New York’s Catskill Mountains, which she cofounded in 2004 with Lawrence Chua and Paul Pfeiffer.

‘It’s not just an artist residency. It’s a place of study, a laboratory, a collective artwork. It mixes agriculture, the garden, a kind of active custodianship of the land – there’s even a river. So you can really get deep and lost in what you need to do,’ says Mehretu.

The residency grew out of a retreat for artists (with a focus on Queer artists and artists of color) around the time of 9/11 and provided refuge again during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are no requirements for how artists spend their time, but maintaining that independence comes with its own challenges. ‘Because it’s run by artists, funding can be an issue. I’ve noticed that foundations often support particular kinds of public programs, so organizations end up shaping their projects around what funders want, rather than the work they actually want to do. We definitely don’t want to do that.’

Over the years, the residency has also experimented with public-facing activities, but Mehretu came to question whether these were really what made the place valuable. ‘What’s special about this place is the kind of conversations that happen on the porch in privacy, where real interrogation and investigation can happen without being in the public gaze.’

Other artist-initiated residencies: Titus Kaphar’s NXTHVN, Ibrahim Mahama’s Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art and Red Clay Studio, Theaster Gates’s Rebuild Foundation, Yinka Shonibare’s Guest Artist Space

Collecting: Subodh Gupta

For established artists, collecting the work of emerging artists can provide both immediate financial support and greater recognition. Having lived on ‘1,000 rupees a month, with barely enough to afford a bus ticket,’ Bihar-born artist Subodh Gupta knows firsthand the financial challenges of starting out. He has spent years collecting work by younger and lesser-known artists, sometimes from unexpected places.

‘I’ve bought work from jailed prisoners in Goa,’ he says, ‘unknown artists, with the money going straight to the family – and you’d be surprised how wonderful their technique is.’ But collecting also brings responsibilities. ‘Looking after, archiving, and storing an artwork is not always easy. At times we felt we weren’t being fair to the work, which is one reason I had to slow down.’ Yet Gupta believes there are limits to what support can offer an artist. ‘When we were starting out, nobody supported us. It’s not always through support that an artist will emerge – you have to go through your own struggle.’ He recalls turning down an offer from the celebrated Indian painter M.F. Husain early in his career. ‘He offered me work in his studio – basically a private museum – but even though I had nothing, I said, “Sorry, I can’t work here.” He just hugged me. As an artist, he understood completely.’

Other artists who collect: Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Cindy Sherman

Mentorship: Willem de Rooij

Through his years of teaching, Dutch artist Willem de Rooij became increasingly aware of how quickly art-school graduates could find themselves isolated. ‘Critical exchange and professional networks are crucial to being an artist, but you only really appreciate them when they’re not there,’ he explains. In 2016, alongside fellow artists Angela Bulloch and Simon Denny, he established the Berlin Program for Artists (BPA), bringing experienced Berlin-based mentors into the studios of young artists in the city (10 are chosen from applicants each year for the 2-year program). As he puts it, ‘Artists newly arrived in Berlin go from knowing nobody to immediately having a great network.’

Every 2 weeks, a rotating roster of mentors visit artists for ‘one-on-one, private conversations about their work.’ But the exchange is reciprocal. ‘It’s a big deal when people come to your studio – it’s such a vulnerable, private space,’ says de Rooij. ‘So every 2 years, the mentors have to open their studios too, and all 20 participants flood in. I love these moments.’

BPA organizes around 350 individual studio visits and 17 group meetings annually, culminating in an exhibition at KW Institute for Contemporary Art. For de Rooij, BPA’s greatest achievement is the community that has grown around it. ‘During Berlin Art Week, so many artists affiliated with the program were showing across the city, and many came to see each other’s work. I was really touched by their energy and their presence. After 10 years, that’s what makes me most proud – seeing how it takes off by itself.’

Other mentorships: Hito Steyerl informally promotes emerging artists, Julie Mehretu’s BMW-supported African Film and Media Arts Collective initiative supports media artists working in five African countries

Exchange and community-building: Yinka Shonibare

In 2019, British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare established the Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation in Nigeria to bring international artists into contact with local creative communities. Having previously established a residency in London, he wanted to take the idea further. ‘I decided to go international because I believe in cultural exchange,’ he explains, ‘and that ignorance and conflict come from not understanding others.’

The idea first took shape in 2011, when Shonibare was invited to give a talk in Lagos and was struck by the reception. ‘The room was packed, and I saw that the local artists were really curious and eager,’ he recalls. In 2022, the foundation began welcoming artists across two sites – a cultural center in Lagos, housing a library, gallery, performance space, and accommodation, and a 54-acre working farm near Ijebu-Ode. ‘Some artists prefer the silence of the countryside, while others make work connected to the land. People want to share ideas, so we provide a platform for that exchange, where international artists can learn from local artists too. Now there are global networks of people, still in touch with each other.’

Together, the sites have welcomed more than 100 artists and practitioners from around the world. Shonibare funded the buildings and infrastructure himself, with patrons, institutions, and galleries helping to cover running costs. ‘I’m of the view that you cannot really succeed without your community helping you to get there. If you’re not given that space or the platform to develop your work, nobody would know anything about what you’re doing.’

Other examples of exchange and community-building: Mark Bradford’s Art + Practice, Rick Lowe’s Project Row Houses, Tavares Strachan’s OKU