Twenty-FiveYears of History and New Initiatives

Founded in 1998 Senior Artists Initiative dedicated itself to educate artists about the need to and means of preserving their artistic heritage. Over the past twenty-five years it has video recorded over one hundred oral histories of recognized Philadelphia regional visual artists.  Employing workshops, published articles, audio and video recordings SAI has informed thousands of visual artists and their heirs about the intricacies of estate planning, and the need to inventory artwork for estate purposes. 

Unfortunately SAI lost it funding opportunities about ten years ago when the PEW Charitable Trust created system for evaluating the benefit of its funding of 

nonprofits.  Most foundations have adopted the PEW system. Under that regimen SAI was reclassified from an Arts Organization to an Artists Support Organization. That action deprived SAI of  support. The lending community supports the Arts but not Artists. 

SAI has continued its operations since then by carefully controlling its expenditures and by using only volunteer help. SAI expects it will be able to sustain its operations for at least five more years.  

All questions or suggestions should be directed to our administrator who can be emailed via the Contact SAI navigation tab.