FCA: Artists for Artists

In 1962 Jasper Johns, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and other painters and sculptors came together to help Merce Cunningham and his dance company finance a proposed season on Broadway by arranging for a sale of their artworks. Their fund-raising efforts were so successful that there was money to spare, and when they asked Cunningham what he thought they should do with it, he replied, “We’re all in the same boat—why don’t you give it to other performing artists?” Thus in 1963 Jasper Johns and John Cage established the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts based on the belief that visual artists—painters and sculptors—were sufficiently concerned about the state of the performance arts—dance, theater, and music—enough so to donate artwork to benefit performing artists.