Interactive Version: https://lsheks.github.io/plotly-grants/plotly-amount-grants-colors-Human_Services-140722.html


In the past decade the source of funding of art institutions, and the inherent power structures that stem from founding sources, have been at the center of the art discourse. Much of the investigations have been local, focusing on selected museums, like the 1974 work Hans Haacke, "Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Board of Trustees," or were limited to exploring the role of specific founders, like the Sackler family.
In the past few years Barabasi has brought the power of big data and network science to art, aiming to systematically unveil the totality of funding sources and personal influences that shape the whole art ecosystem and to unveil the underlying complexity of the system. As a first step, the BarabasiLab processed the tax forms of all nonprofit foundations in the past decade, aiming to understand how foundations use their resources, their governance, and in particular, to understand the role and the position of arts within this philanthropic ecosystem.

Philantropy explores the totality of the philanthropic landscape, exploring the spending patterns of the over 3 trillion dollars fundations have spent during the past decade. Using 3,660,949 tax filings from foundations from 2010-2019, BarabasiLab mapped 8,186,055 grants to non-profit institutions. The twelve panels correspond to the twelve categories through which the tax code defines the areas of philanthropy, from universities to health care, religion or art, demonstrating the relative priorities of foundations. The large purple panel unveils that universities are the largest recipient of foundation support, collecting $197 billion.
Art & Culture, which contains all art categories, from performing to visual arts, received $37B, and Art Museums received just $3.7B over ten years. Hence 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, and a certificate, that identifies the subcategories of each sub box, and the amount of funding associated with them. Philantropy offers a global mirror of global philanthropy, unveiling the exceptional wealth in private hands and the relative priorities of these funds..

Credits: Philanthropies. A.-L. Barabási, L. Shekhtman, M Gresa (2002)