A group of foundations and philanthropists has formed a new foundation that will work to support artists who deal with nudity, sexuality and other provocative themes, The New York Times reports.

The new foundation, called Creative Capital, already has assets of more than $5 million and hopes to raise $40 million during the next 20 years. It plans to launch its first round of grants, totaling $1 million, early next year, the newspaper reported Monday.

Creative Capital's largest contributor is the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, which has pledged $400,000 a year for the next three years. Other contributors include the Rockefeller Foundation, the Norton Family Foundation, the Joe and Emily Lowe Foundation, the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation and the Eli Broad Family Foundation. Each has pledged up to $100,000 a year, the newspaper says.

Backers of the effort say they want to support artists who are seeing financial support from the federal government's National Endowment for the Arts dry up. In making grants, artists will be required to work with experts to develop audiences for their works and to market them. The artists also will be required to give a portion of their proceeds back to Creative Capital.

Creative Capital plans to award grants of $5,000 to $20,000. Awards will be split roughly equally into four categories: performing, visual and film or video artists and hybrid works, The Times reports.

Winning artists must be pursuing projects that have artistic merit, Archibald L. Gillies, president of the Warhol Foundation, told The Times. "It's not that we'll support everything controversial," he says. "We will support what people across the country are saying is good art, is exciting, interesting art."

Full text of the article is currently found at the following link.
Site registration may be required to view the story:

http://search.nytimes.com/search/daily/bin/fastweb?getdoc+
site+site+70428+0+wAAA+%22Creative%7ECapital%22