concerns about inequality have heightened criticism of government policies that favor the wealthiest sliver of society, these tax breaks have come under sharper scrutiny.” 4
It wouldn’t be incorrect to state that MOMA, Princeton University Art Museum, and The Newark Museum of Art, for example, are some of the preferred tax-avoiding institutions for wealthy Americans. According to 990 tax form for 2016, MOMA received 301M contributions and grants for 2017- $293M, 2018-$135M, 2019-$244M, and 2020-$166M. All amounts do not include PS1. Or Mana Contemporary, which is Jersey City’s MOMA. Mana’s Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation and Monira Foundation received $1.5M for three years from unknown donors in exchange for cultural events. The building of Mana in Jersey City is a store of private collections of known and unknown collectors. Public access is only by appointment with a tour guide and specific days and hours. The exhibition program is chaotic, and it is not unusual to come to an exhibition space with lights off or locked for access. It is not uncommon to see half of a billion collection of Warhol in a room next to half-floor empty walls. Visiting many events at MANA in Jersey City and Miami, I cannot recall a clear curatorial concept or long-term cultural strategy. Philanthropy is how wealthy people avoid taxes. The social effect of it is a by-product. It does not matter to the philanthropist who the artist is or how important the art is; meanwhile, his name is on the gallery's façade and the catalog's front page. It could be nicknamed with the two words Philanthropy Culture, where the second does not matter much. As everything in America tends to be big, Philanthropy Culture is growing bigger and bigger. In 2017 the total donations to charitable organizations were $410.02 billion (2.1% of GDP), which increases between 3.0% to 5.2%in each year. As a comparison for the same fiscal year (FY) 2017, the US federal, state, and local public funding for the arts totaled $1.39 billion. “According to a 2019 report by the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University, nonprofits account for roughly one in 10 jobs in the U.S. private workforce, total employees numbering 12.3 million in 2016. Over the decade since 2007, nonprofit jobs have grown almost four times faster than for-profit jobs.” The Philanthropy money is followed by an army of intellectual bureaucratic servants who do not create or apport to the society but, even worst, implant the rules of the Philanthropy Culture.
4 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/business/art-collectors-gain-tax-benefits-from-private-museums.html
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