[H&R] Fwd: Artist Donations

[Joseph Gray]

the document text:

_______________J U A N   A L O N SO   S T U D I O________________
Grand Central Arcade – 214 1st Ave S. Suite B15, Seattle, WA 98104 ph.  
206-390-4882  HYPERLINK "http://www.juanalonso.info"  
www 
.juanalonso 
.info                                                             
HYPERLINK "http://www.juan-alonso.blogspot.com" www.juan-alonso.blogspot.com



October 10, 2008


To Whom It May Concern,

I feel lucky and blessed to be an artist and have the opportunity to  
create for a living. It is part of my philosophy as an artist to give  
back to my community, from local to global. In the last18 months I  
have sold some and donated over 30 works of art to organizations (some  
art related, some not) and fundraisers, and have done so willingly.  
That is more work given than work sold. The issue is, and more so now  
with the current economic crisis, it seems every organization believes  
that artists are the first professional group of people to ask for  
donations for their fund-raiser, no matter what the cause is. It has  
gotten out of hand. I don’t know of any other business group, as a  
lot, that is automatically called when money needs to be raised.  
Perhaps there are some out there. Perhaps people raising funds don’t  
realize that artists are single-person businesses for the most part  
and that as a general rule, artists are on the lower end of the income  
levels, and that every piece given away to help a worthy cause is also  
income we are not bringing in to our business. Perhaps fund-raising  
organizations don’t realize that so far there is no tax incentive for  
artists to donate our own work. If another individual donates my work,  
they get to deduct it from their taxes. If I donate my work, the only  
thing I can deduct is the cost of my materials, which I would do  
anyway at the end of the year. Under current laws, our skill, talent  
and labor is seen as worthless and it might be a good idea for some of  
the organizations asking artists for work to start lobbying  
governmental agencies to change their policies. As far as I know,  
Artist Trust is the only one doing so. How about artists being able to  
deduct a percentage of the price for which the piece sold? How’s that  
for determining fair-market value?
Until recently, I gladly gave and even served on acquisition  
committees for a couple of art-related organizations. At this point,  
however, I’m suspending all donations of my artwork in order to make a  
living at my job as an artist. I hope that other artists also realize  
that the “exposure” incentive or the 10% back just doesn’t cut it  
anymore. I hope organizations start tapping other, wealthier sources  
for enriching themselves and that the IRS finally comes to realize  
that artists are assets to the community as a whole.

Respectfully,






Juan Alonso

On Oct 10, 2008, at 2:20 PM, Steven Vroom wrote:

> Below is an e-mail from artist Juan Alonso. He is now refusing to  
> donate art work to any charity. There is a letter attached where he  
> explains why.
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Juan Alonso <juanalonso1 at yahoo.com>
>> Date: October 10, 2008 10:49:22 AM PDT
>> To: Juan Alonso <juanalonso1 at yahoo.com>
>> Subject: Artist Donations
>>
>> Attached is a letter I wrote in response to the many requests for  
>> art donations. It is also posted on Regina Hackett's blog http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/art/archives/151076.asp 
>> , my facebook page and will be posted on my blog on Monday. Public  
>> comments (pro or con) on any of those blogs are best. Also feel  
>> free to pass it along to anyone you think should read it.
>>
>> Juan Alonso
>> Juan Alonso Studio
>> Grand Central Arcade
>> 214 1st Avenue South, Suite B15
>> Seattle, Washington 98104
>> Ph. 206-390-4882 m
>> http://www.juanalonso.info
>> http://juan-alonso.blogspot.com
>>
> <Artist Donations Letter.doc>
>>
>>
> Vroom Journal
> Art Radio Seattle
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