In the past decade the source of funding, and the inherent power structures that stem from the founding sources, has been at the center of the art discourse, prompting BarabasiLab to bring the power of big data to this question. The Lab processed the tax forms of all nonprofit foundations in the past decade, to understand how foundations use their resources. Using 3,660,949 tax filings from foundations from 2010-2019, BarabasiLab mapped 8,186,055 grants to non-profit institutions, spending about $800 billion in this period. Philanthropy explores the totality of the philanthropic landscape, the twelve panels corresponding to the twelve categories through which the tax code defines the areas of donations. The large purple panel (Image 12) unveils that universities are the largest recipient of foundation support, collecting $197 billion. Art & Culture (Image 18), which contains all art categories, from performing to visual arts, received $37B, and Art Museums received just $3.7B over ten years. The relative size of the green panel captures the relatively modest societal investment in art, compared to other categories of need. Each wood panel is accompanied with an online interface, that identifies the subcategories and the amount of funding associated with them.
Credit: A.-L. Barabási, L. Shekhtman, M. Gresa, A. Szűcs, D. Kármán, L Radvánszki, V. Csonka, B. Pál, A. Dickova, A. Boruzs, K. Lázár, L. Pataki.
Exhibited at Postmasters Gallery, New York, 2022
Interactive Versions
Philanthropy No I, Higher Education
Philanthropy No II, Human Services
Philanthropy No III, (All Other) Health
Philanthropy No. IV, Public Benefit
Philanthropy No VI, (All Other) Education
Philanthropy No VII, Arts&Culture
Philanthropy No VIII, International
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