New Education Program Inspires Economically Advantaged Youth To Express Themselves Through Funding The Arts

SAN FRANCISCO—An after-school program Fund The Passion launched this week with the aim of inspiring economically advantaged youth to express themselves through funding the arts. “So many wealthy kids in our area show great financial potential, and our goal is to provide them with an opportunity to channel their love for the arts into helping those with actual talent to excel,” said Fund The Passion president Nancy Fielding, whose organization looks to pair more than 500 private school students with real-world financier mentors to show young millionaires their untapped talent for launching galas, commissioning portraits, and even working together to provide loans to galleries. “We want these affluent children to believe that, one day, they can be the patron of a great painter, a great sculptor, or even a great actor. Imaginations start flourishing at an early age, which is why we start in elementary school classrooms by helping them write checks for smaller sums, say $200,000, in exchange for, say, a handcrafted bronze statue to be placed in their family’s Aspen vacation home. Each one of these wealthy children has inherited the ability to be a benefactor, so we try to teach them there’s no greater satisfaction than standing at the back of a gallery, nodding, and taking partial credit for the masterpiece you underwrote.” Fielding claims that Fund The Passion has already demonstrated its worth, as private schools implementing the program have seen their graduation rates spike from an average of 95% up to 97%.