Researchers are closely watching. By Jenna Ross. A pilot program providing a basic income for Minnesota artists was one of the first. Springboard for the Arts announced Tuesday that it is extending and expanding its guaranteed income program. By January, artists in Minnesota will receive the no-strings-attached sums.
Springboard was one of the first organizations to focus on creatives whose work is often precarious and whose income is often inconsistent. A nonprofit with offices in St. Paul and Fergus Falls, it is now adding more rural artists, making them a focus of ongoing research into how these payments make a difference for people and communities. Other months, it allowed her to pay down credit cards.
After a run-in with a deer, it helped her afford a used car. Over time, it gave her the opportunity to buy a cute, old Victorian house with her daughter. Paul is among the cities that have tried sending money to very low-income residents, studying the results. The first 25 participants, who have received income since , will see that money continue for two more years. Those who started receiving it 18 months ago, including 25 artists in Otter Tail County, will continue.
Funding has come from private foundations, at first from the Bush Foundation, then the Kresge and Ford foundations and now the McKnight Foundation, Zabel said. Springboard is also putting its own general operating funds into the project. Paul and Otter Tail County.
And also, how it impacts how they think about their own goals. Hanna ended up in Fergus Falls in because of Springboard. Newly divorced, the then-southwestern Minnesota resident was scouting the state in search of a medium-sized city where an artist could afford to make a home. She saw that Springboard had a Fergus Falls office and called them up. Hanna opened her Tangles to Treasures shop downtown, then moved to a little mall that was more accessible for her mother, for whom she was a caregiver.
