AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

Last night I heard about an interesting financial investment opportunity for artists. In this system, you'd "invest" by contributing your art - 20 pieces over 20 years - which will then be sold by the Artist Pension Trust. A portion of proceeds go to you, a portion to the Trust, and a portion to all participating artists, allowing a group pension fund to build. Potentially very useful, especially considering that many artists don't work a job where pension benefits would normally accrue.

http://www.artistpensiontrust.org/

The Artist Pension Trust started in 2003, but seems to be doing well already, with over 300 artist members. There are trusts in New York, Los Angeles, London, Beijing, and Mexico City, with trusts planned for Mumbai and Bangkok. There are about 100 members in the New York trust, and over 50 in the Los Angeles trust (which apparently can include artists from all over California). Here's a recent (June 2006) review:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/18/BUG08JF4HA1.DTL