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Health Affairs' Ryann Tanap and Vabren Watts interview Tony Brunswick, executive director of Art Enables, about his organization and its work and impact on artists with disabilities.
Health Affairs This Week places listeners at the center of health policy’s proverbial water cooler. Join editors from Health Affairs, the leading journal of health policy research, and special guests as they discuss this week’s most pressing health policy news. All in 15 minutes or less.
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Vabren Watts
Thanks for joining Health Affairs This Week. I'm Vabren Watts.
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Ryann Tanap
And I'm Ryan Tanap.
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Vabren Watts
You know Health Affairs October issue focuses on disability and health. As part of the issue we are including artwork to accompany some of the content by residents from Art Enables, an art gallery, a vocational arts program in Washington D.C. If you haven't checked it out yet today's cohost Ryan Tanap wrote a Forefront article on Art Enables and had the pleasure of speaking with some of the residents artists and staff.
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Ryann Tanap
Yes, that's right, Vabe. And I just wanted to direct listeners to our Health Affairs Sunday Update newsletter that you are welcome to subscribe to, as well as social media, specifically LinkedIn, where we're featuring five artists from Art Enables. We purchase their artwork and will be featuring a brief profile on each of them as well as the artwork that we purchase.
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Ryann Tanap
So please check that out. And to continue the conversation, we're joined today by Tony Brunswick, executive director at Art Enables. Tony, thanks so much for joining us.
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Tony Brunswick
Thank you. It's an honor to be here. I appreciate the invitation.
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Ryann Tanap
Oh, absolutely. So if we could get started, what is Art Enables, Tony?
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Tony Brunswick
Yeah, I'm very happy to talk about that. So Art Enables is a professional art gallery and studio dedicated to amplifying the careers of artists with disabilities. And we do this by providing artists with the platform to be able to create, exhibit and earn income from their artwork.
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Vabren Watts
So, Tony, what type of guidance does Art Enables provide to artists on how to set rates for artwork?
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Tony Brunswick
Yeah, so we do a lot of work supporting artists in the art, the creation phase of the artwork, the marketing phase and the exhibition and sale phase. And the pricing of artwork is tricky for any working, emerging and professional artists. And so we sit down with the artist and talk about what the DC market typically brings for artwork, and discuss how artists want to be able to price and market their work.
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Tony Brunswick
There's a consistent pricing band that the studio typically operates within, but we want to make sure we're honoring the artists, the time they put into the work, and the work itself by pricing it at a respectable price.
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Ryann Tanap
And just to follow up on that, do the artists get to have some say in that price? Yes.
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Tony Brunswick
Yeah, absolutely. You know, some artists prefer to allow the studio to manage that aspect of sales. And then we have other artists that we check in with and give us advice and feedback on what they think the work should be valued at. And so it's a conversation across the studio with the artists on what the ultimate price ends up being for any individual work.
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Ryann Tanap
Great. Thank you. So we read a 2017 NPR article that you and I had talked about previously before I wrote the article. And in that article you stated that when an artist joins Art Enables through the Department of Disability Services in DC, about 70% of the cost is covered by a waiver program funded by Medicare and Medicaid. Is that still the case?
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Tony Brunswick
Yes and no. No, in that since the pandemic, it's affected our programing, which affects how we're working with Medicaid and how we're working with the DC Department of Disability Services. So our income through providing Medicaid waiver services has declined overall. Also that 70% even prior to the pandemic, it is true that it covered 70% of our costs. I would say that with, you know, the economy in the way that it is now, everything is costing more as an organization.
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Tony Brunswick
It costs more to retain people. It costs more to run programs that even if we were billing at the same levels or working with Medicaid waiver programs at the same levels today as we were prior to the pandemic, it would now be less than that 70%. If we tried to be 100% funded by what we receive through our Medicaid partnership,
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Tony Brunswick
we would have to make some drastic changes as an organization to be able to work within the Medicaid funding. As it stands now, we do a lot of outside fundraising and development activities to help offset the costs that we think should and need to go into supporting the artists' career development through our program model.
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Ryann Tanap
So you mentioned that the pandemic significantly affected funding for Art Enables. And you know, that's the case for organizations across the board. We'd be curious to hear how did Art Enables specifically close the funding gap? Did you have to outreach to existing groups of supporters or did you find, you know, new, new funders?
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Tony Brunswick
So, you know, for so many people, when the pandemic hit, it was just such a difficult blow. And I think for folks that work with Medicaid funded programs, it was especially difficult. We lost about 95% of our Medicaid funding once the pandemic hit. So it was a pretty drastic blow to us. But fortunately, we were able to offset 100% of those losses through other revenue streams, through individuals who just stepped up their giving, Art Enables is a nonprofit organization.
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Tony Brunswick
So there were a lot of individuals who stepped up their financial support of the organization. We found New Foundation and public funders, state and government funders that we were able to apply for grants and receive that. And then we also did take advantage to the extent we could of available emergency COVID relief funds, whether at the federal level through the PPP programs or at the state level where there may have been state based relief programs available.
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Tony Brunswick
So a combination of all of that and being extremely resourceful and trying to find additional funds, we were able to withstand the financial impact of COVID. So we were able to continue fully supporting every individual that was receiving services through our studio, through the entire duration of the pandemic, which we're really grateful and proud of.
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Ryann Tanap
That's fantastic. Was there anything else that you think we should know that we actually didn't ask about today?
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Tony Brunswick
I would just say for those listeners who are new to Art Enables, I would invite you to check out our website. We have incredibly talented artists working in the studio who have built an incredible following of collectors and art buyers. And the work really stands on its own against, alongside their peers in the visual arts space. Art Enables has been around for 21 years.
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Tony Brunswick
Artists have sold over a million and a half dollars of artwork and merchandise in that time. And it's just, it's a really exciting program and it's an incredible display of talent that we just want people to know about, and to see, and experience, and if you like to buy.
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Vabren Watts
That's amazing. You know, the artwork is once again, it is featured on the disability and health issue. Check out Ryann's article, which she has links to the profiles and backgrounds of the artists as well as some more art. And if you check out just the issue of the disability and health, even on our main cover, there is art featured from Art Enables.
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Vabren Watts
You know, Tony, thank you so much for joining us for Health Affairs This Week. And thanks to our listeners for another episode. If you like this episode, please tell a friend, leave a review, or subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast. Once again, for Health Affairs, I'm Vabren Watts.
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Ryann Tanap
And I'm Ryann Tanap.
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Vabren Watts
Bye.