Art for Healing

21
Jul

Posted under Charities, |

Brief History Of Art For Healing

Angus Whyte, Executive Director

PART I - (1981 - 1989)
 
Art for Healing (AfH) was founded in 1981 by Stuart Denenberg as a public service and philanthropic venture designed as an adjunct to his art business. His father, ill in a hospital in Manhattan, complained because his room was ugly, and said: "You're an art dealer. Why don't you bring some pictures here to make this place more comfortable?" Stuart did just that, his father recovered, and Art for Healing was initiated.
Subsequently, with the move of both gallery and Art for Healing to San Francisco, during the following nine years Stuart and his wife Beverly amassed a large collection of works on behalf of Art for Healing, whose mission is to collect original works of donated art and place them in hospitals and healthcare facilities. By 1990, the collection, then valued at some $2 million, was taking too much time and energy from their business, and they gave it, along with its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, to the Delancey Foundation, with the understanding that Delancey, with its framing component, would continue to manage and operate Art for Healing. Unfortunately, Delancey reneged on its promise, kept most of the art on its walls, and sold off the rest, also allowing the 501(c)(3) IRS nonprofit determination to lapse.  

PART II - (1997 - present)
In 1997, with encouragement from Stuart and Beverly, I resuscitated the organization. The Delancey Foundation refused to return any of the art, and it was necessary to begin anew. I bought a computer program entitled "How to start a California Corporation", followed the instructions, and filed the documents. Within a few months, Art for Healing was, once again, incorporated in California and began to operate under the aegis and nonprofit status of San Francisco Film and Art. At the same time I bought another computer program entitled "How to Create a Nonprofit Organization", followed the instructions, and filed the documents. In 1998 AfH was awarded a new 501(c)(3) designation, which is currently still valid. Since then, AfH has grown and expanded greatly. (Please see the list of placements in the printed brochure on the following two pages in this folder.)
It appeared that the climate for philanthropy in the late 1990's was an auspicious time to seek funding and general local support for such an organization. The original Board of Directors included Stuart Denenberg as Founder; Beverly Denenberg as Secretary, economist Rita Laven as Treasurer and myself as Executive Director.

For the first few years, funding derived primarily from an annual benefit given in a local art gallery, in addition to a few private and corporate sponsors. As time passed, funding efforts remained static, and with great optimism, I supported the organization financially through its growing pains. In 2004 the Denenbergs moved their gallery and home to Los Angeles and left the Board. By this time landscape designer Stephen Suzman joined the board, followed by Breeze Carlile, who served as Secretary until May of this year. Attorney Rob Rosborough joined the board for several years and left in 2006, as did Rita Laven, who moved to London. Realtor and art enthusiast Sue Kubly joined in 2006, followed by hospital interior designer Phyllis Martin-Vegue and graphic designer David Schellinger in 2007.

By the end of 2007, Art for Healing had amassed a collection of more than two thousand works of art valued above $2 million, and, with the generous donation of the EmBARK database program from Berkeley, California-based Gallery Systems, AfH webmaster Benjamin Sisson mastered the program and transcribed the entire AfH inventory, as well as records of all placements in hospitals and healthcare facilities, into the new database.

Current projects include placements at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco, which is undergoing an $800 M renovation, and the St. Anthony Foundation, also located in San Francisco, now nearing completion of a new facility. http://www.artforhealing.org/