You don’t have to be a dealer or an auction-house specialist to know that as the bubble in the art market has expanded, some artists have gotten really, really rich. So what are they doing with their wealth? A few are becoming collectors in their own right, but others are turning to more altruistic pursuits—establishing nonprofit foundations, to be precise. This is a pastime usually reserved for the trustees of bankable artists’ estates or for corporations playing at being good citizens. Considering the bog the global economy has waded into, these artists may not have chosen the best time to embark on such ventures. So why are they doing it? Is there some obvious lacuna that these benefactors are filling, or are their foundations just vanity projects?

Most of this handful of philanthropies can be defined as passion projects, driven by personal connections to a particular place or a group of people. The artists are not trying to save the world, nor are they interested in social recognition or in duplicating the activities of any official organization. Their activities have specific aims, such as establishing schools or supporting orphanages. Some are art related, others not.

Declaring a desire to establish a nonprofit foundation for teaching and archiving performance art, Marina Abramović used $1 million of her own money earlier this year to purchase an abandoned theater in Hudson, in upstate New York, that will be the home of the Marina Abramović Foundation for Preservation of Performance Art. Her work is cut out for her—the derelict building has to be completely renovated. But this has not deterred the artist, who says she has plans for residencies, workshops, public education courses, a library and a grants program. She’s footing the entire bill.

Abramović’s foundation will provide opportunities for artists and promote awareness of performance art and related issues. This is welcome news, because no other institution in the U.S. is devoted to these concerns. But the school idea is hardly original: In the early 1970s, Joseph Beuys founded the Free International University in Düsseldorf with the poet Heinrich Böll and others dedicated to establishing a new paradigm in art education and practice. There is probably some self-interest here, as well, since Abramović will get to train a future generation of performance artists in her own mold.

Shahzia Sikander also has ambitions for a foundation. The 39-year-old Pakistani-born, New York–based painter has bought a plot of land in Lahore on which she hopes at some point to build a center for international artist residencies. Lahore is the cultural capital of Pakistan, but it doesn’t get many foreign visitors—hence Sikander’s interest in bringing over some important contemporary talents. Although architectural plans have been drawn up, the project is on hold while Sikander completes her own residency in Berlin. “The timing is not good for me to start anything as yet,” she explains.

Other artists have envisioned nonprofits that address social issues. After adopting two children from Ethiopia, the Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson and his partner, Marianne Krogh Jensen, began 121Ethiopia.org to support an orphanage in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It is a tiny organization with no administrative staff except for the voluntary board, thus “ensuring that all the money donated to the foundation goes solely to its projects,” says Eliasson. In 2006, the artist donated all profits from a commissioned art project shown over the holidays in the windows of Louis Vuitton stores worldwide. To use a commission for a global luxury company—owned by a billionaire—and the media coverage stemming from it as a platform to raise awareness of poverty was a bit subversive.

Gaoan Foundation has a similar focus. Founded in 2006 in Shanghai by Zhang Huan and his wife, Hu Chang Guan, the organization supports initiatives in education, cultural preservation and Buddhism. It has funded school construction across China—an area of national neglect, as evidenced by the many school buildings in disrepair in rural areas, a number of which have collapsed over the years injuring and killing children, most recently following the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province in May. Among Gaoan’s accomplishments are seven new elementary schools in some of the poorest provinces in the country.

Artists tend to be guarded when discussing finances, but privately most acknowledge that funds for their philanthropic pursuits come from the sale of their artworks or from private investments. That raises questions about commitment: If the art market dips, if sales dry up, what happens to the foundations? Effective philanthropy usually requires sustained support. Beyond supplying money up front, that means being there long term. The unpleasant truth is that as private organizations, these artist foundations are not beholden to anyone other than, say, a nominal board; they could cease functioning abruptly.

Still, it is hard to criticize people who aspire to further educational and social causes. Good for them, I say. If only more people with new wealth—artists included—would do things like this. And given the staggering amounts of money that have been made by dealers and collectors in recent years, one wonders, Where’s the giving back? The absence of widespread munificence in the art world makes these new efforts even more noteworthy. "Artists to the Rescue" originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's November 2008 Table of Contents.