“I have a piece called Fat of the Land in the auction,” Tague says. “I have donated a piece [to ARTDOCS] every year since I used it.”

While he was pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at UNO, Tague had no health insurance. When he injured a shoulder, he didn’t know where to turn. Fellow artist and gallery owner Jonathan Ferrara directed him to ARTDOCS (Artists Receiving Treatment Doctors Offering Crucial Services), which Ferrara had founded with Dr. Vincent Morelli, then a physician at the LSU Family Medicine Clinic at Kenner Regional Hospital.

“In 1999, I was doing a show with Roy Ferdinand Jr. at my gallery,” Ferrara says. “I’m installing stuff and he’s telling me that he’s in bad shape — stomach problems. But he had no health insurance.”

After a conversation with Morelli, the two started looking for a way to provide assistance to artists. Many of the artists they knew had no insurance and very little income. Ferdinand later died of stomach cancer.

“We thought, this is crazy,” Morelli says. “These artists help us see the world we live in. This is no way to treat them — letting them go without medical care.

“The same can be said for a lot of uninsured people. But this is one place where we can make a difference.”

They soon created a plan to allow artists to get treatment from Morelli and his residents at the clinic at Kenner Regional Hospital, which quickly agreed to eight free visits per week. Morelli says the clinic supported 250 to 300 artist visits annually. An inaugural benefit at Tipitina’s raised $5,000 to support the program.

The last fundraiser was held in 2004. After Hurricane Katrina, it still had funds to operate and later received a grant from the Idea Village. Since 2007, ARTDOCS has offered treatment at the Daughters of Charity Clinic in Bywater. Fees are determined on a sliding scale, but many qualify for free care. Artists, writers and performers are eligible for ARTDOCS if they are uninsured and earn less than twice the national annual poverty level, which is roughly $10,300.

Besides helping artists, one of the benefits of the original program at Kenner Regional Hospital was to get doctors to connect with the community, Morelli says. Two residents in his program, Sarat Raman and Coleman Pratt, are now the physicians running ARTDOCS at Daughters of Charity, offering a full spectrum of primary and preventative care. Raman had returned home to West Virginia after his residency, but moved back to New Orleans in 2007, in part because of his interest in the culture of the city. He also serves as ARTDOCS’ medical director and sits on the board of directors.

“The main thrust of this is to provide access to health care to the artists of New Orleans who don’t have health insurance,” Raman says. “On the administrative side, we are looking to expand the network of physicians who participate. So if someone needs to see a specialist, we can continue to offer care.”

Morelli moved to Nashville in 2007 but spends one week each month in New Orleans. He teaches at Vanderbilt University and Meharry Medical College, and just initiated an extension of ARTDOCS in Nashville in October.

The auction will provide support for the local program. Artwork was donated by a wide range of contributors including Prospect.1 participants, artists represented by Ferrara’s gallery and past ARTDOCS treatment recipients. There are pieces by Douglas Bourgeois, Mel Chin, Tony Fitzpatrick, Skylar Fein, Paul Villinski, George Dureau, James Michalopoulos, Dawn Dedeaux, Jacqueline Bishop, Robert Tannen, Sandy Chism, Thomas Mann, Auseklis Ozols and others. The event features music spun by DJ Soul Sister, plus entertainment by aerialists and fire spinners.

“At its core, it’s artists helping artists,” Ferrara says.

But there are other benefits as well.

“The fundraiser helps to raise awareness,” Raman says, referring to getting the word out about services offered. Many artists learn about ARTDOCS through word of mouth, but Raman also screens patients at the Bywater clinic to see if they are eligible. He hopes the event attracts more physicians who want to participate.

Ferrara also relates the program to support for broader initiatives.

“It’s all part of the cultural economy,” he says. “You have to have a healthy culture. You have to have healthy artists who can contribute.”

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Tague was a graduate student at the time and didn’t have any health insurance. At the clinic, he received Xrays and was sent home. Then the bill came. The final tally for the services was more than $400, Tague remembered, well beyond what he could afford.

“I just didn’t pay it,” he said. As the outstanding payment notices kept coming, he paid what he could in increments. Eventually, the notices stopped.

It is precisely this type of predicament, found widely among members of the city’s artistic community, that inspired gallery owner and artist Jonathan Ferrara and family physician Dr. Vincent Morelli to establish ARTDOCS, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, in 1999.

The program, whose acronym stands for Artists Receiving Treatment Doctors Offering Crucial Services, functions much like the New Orleans Musicians Clinic does, designed to provide health care to other contributors to the city’s creative class – the visual and performance artists and writers who often are uninsured and can’t afford health care.

ARTDOCS patients must be New Orleans artists who are uninsured and earn less than $21,600, or twice the federal poverty standard.

For qualifying clients, the program covers the costs of office visits with a family physician and any associated lab fees. Those in need of specialist care are funneled through the University Hospital system or referred to one of the health care providers affiliated with the program on a volunteer basis.

Organizers say the program is one of the first of its kind in the country. Morelli, meantime, has established a version of ARTDOCS in Nashville, Tenn., where he moved after Katrina.

“Everybody talks about the cultural economy, especially after Katrina,” Ferrara said. “… The methodology behind ARTDOCS is if you want to have a cultural economy, you have to have a healthy culture. To have healthy culture, you have to have healthy artists.”

“As a family physician, you learn to work in the community that you live in, whether that’s physically or entertainment-wise or whatever it is,” Raman said.

“… I’ve always grown up around people who are artistic. … This is just a natural extension of me giving back to the community that I live in.”

ARTDOCS covers most of its costs through a regular art auction. The first auction since Katrina will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Heffler Warehouse at 851 Magazine St.

Ferrara said the event will feature many of the artists whose works are represented, music by DJ Soul Sister, fire spinners and aerialists and food and drink.

Admission to the auction is $15 at the door per person or $25 for couples. Buyers can also offer bids online at www.artdocs.com\auction.

Organizers hope to raise around $50,000 through the event.

“That’ll sustain us for the next year and a half, hopefully,” Ferrara said. “And if we raise more than that, it will help us to possibly expand some services.”

Not long after his expensive medical experience, Tague, now 35, was turned on to ARTDOCS and has been an avid supporter of the program ever since.

“I had pulled my shoulder out, ripped a ligament in it,” he said. “I went over there and I was sitting in the waiting room. … A second later they called me back and I was like, ‘Is this for real?’ I thought I’d be waiting for hours.”

Tague received X-rays and two more followup visits – and, even more extraordinary than the short wait time – no bills for the services.

Soon after, Tague got a job that offered health benefits, but he continues to donate works of art to every ARTDOCS auction and tell other artists about the program.

His donation this year comes from a recent series designed to highlight what he considers to be some of the pitfalls of American capitalism. It targets what he sees as the shortcomings in the nation’s health care system.

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The ARTDOCS Rx grant program will give away 40 $1,000 grants at this public drawing to help local artists rebuild studios, replace equipment and purchase art supplies.

As part of a larger effort to support the local economy and sustain the city’s unique artistic and creative culture, winners must be full-time New Orleans artists who plan to continue working in the area, and the money they receive must be spent at locally owned and operated Orleans-parish businesses.

Gallery owner Jonathan Ferrara designed the grant program as an extension of ARTDOCS — Artists Receiving Treatment Doctors Offering Crucial Services, a local nonprofit founded by Ferrara and Dr. Vince Morelli to provide health care to artists who don’t have insurance. Ferrara and Morelli have now expanded the program to include other services to help artists recover losses resulting from Hurricane Katrina and encourage the revitalization of New Orleans’ artistic community.

While giving away the grants by drawing is part of an IRS stipulation to prevent favoritism, Ferrara says he considers this event Phase One of a program designed to reach as many artists as possible.

“We’re still raising money,” he says. “People can make donations to the program online. It would be great to do a Phase Two. We’re going to see how this works, how many people it will help. We want to get the money directly to the artists so it’s not like Road Home, where you’re waiting for years and years.”

The grant program also is designed to cover things the New Orleans musicians’ clinics do not.

“What we found was that there was a lot of help for musicians and cultural institutions and things of that nature, but as to actual direct help for (other) artists, we did not find anything,” Ferrara says. “We have become a conduit for directly donating to the artist. We have enough money to fund the clinic for this year, so with the extra money we raised, about $20,000, we said we’re going to create this ARTDOCS grant program.”

Money for the program came through a variety of fundraising efforts including proceeds from Ferrara’s New Orleans Artists In Exile exhibition, the Sweet ART Katrina Fund, donations by Chris Rose from sales of his book 1 Dead In Attic and a Mardi Gras party fundraiser from local artist James Michalopoulos.

Having decided to put this money toward the grant program, Ferrara then approached Idea Village, a nonprofit support company whose mission is to facilitate entrepreneurial innovation, to ask for matching funds.

As part of its mission, Idea Village believes that supporting entrepreneurs and encouraging them to support other businesses in turn contributes to the creation of a self-sustaining community. As Idea Village President Tim Williamson and Manager Lauren Baum note, their company became involved with Ferrara and ARTDOCS through its Pay It Forward program.

After Katrina, Idea Village provided a $4,000 grant to support Ferrara’s New Orleans Artists In Exile traveling exhibition. When he approached the group with his grant idea, they were inspired by his entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to the artistic community and agreed to match the $20,000 he had already raised, Williamson says. More than random acts of kindness, the entrepreneurial ventures supported by Idea Village promote a chain of goodwill and economic growth they and Ferrara hope to see develop in the artistic community as well.

“We value the arts, we want the creative people of this community to feel valued and that people are trying to help them,” Ferrara says. “It’s not just musicians. There are plenty of other creative types that need to be valued in this community as well.”

Artists should bring their completed applications to Jonathan Ferrara Gallery between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on April 21 to register. Artist James Michalopoulos will draw winners at random starting at 4 p.m. All artists, entrepreneurs and art supporters are welcome.

Applications and information are available at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Idea Village (638 Camp St., 304-3284) and online at www.artdocs.com or www.ideavillage.org.
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(New Orleans) March 30, 2007 – Today, ARTDOCS and The Idea Village announce the ARTDOCS Rx lottery grant program to support the creative economy in New Orleans by providing forty $1000 lottery assistance grants for artists to use for help with rebuilding studios, replacing lost equipment and purchasing necessary art supplies. The grants are intended for full-time artists as a way to further stimulate and solidify cultural tourism in New Orleans.

ARTDOCS, Artists Receiving Treatment Doctors Offering Crucial Services, is a New Orleans-based non-profit organization designed to provide no-cost medical care for visual artists, writers and performing artists without health insurance. ARTDOCS expanded its mission post-Katrina to aid in the repatriation and rebuilding of the arts in New Orleans. The Idea Village is a non-profit business accelerator whose mission is to encourage innovation and provide focused resources to accelerate entrepreneurial ventures in New Orleans.

The catalyst of this relationship stems from the triage grants awarded to innovative entrepreneurs by The Idea Village. Jonathan Ferrara gallery received a $4,000 shipping grant to support “New Orleans Artists in Exile” traveling exhibition of more than 20 artists. Now, Ferrara has again partnered with The Idea Village in its “pay it forward” program whereby entrepreneurs that have received assistance assist other local entrepreneurs.

ARTDOCS support for this project comes from national fundraising efforts and generous donations from James Michalopoulos, Jonathan Ferrara gallery, The Sweet ART Katrina Fund, Chris Rose and many more. A matching donation was given by the Professional Convention Management Association (PMCA), which partnered with The Idea Village to execute an innovative program in support of the local cultural economy and small businesses. Through a public lottery drawing, forty $1000 grants will be allocated to visual artists, writers and performing artists. The grants will be awarded to full-time performing and studio artists who plan to continue their creative existence in New Orleans.

ARTDOCS Rx Grants are available for full time working artists living in Orleans Parish. In an effort to support and sustain the local economy, all grant dollars must be spent with an Orleans Parish owned and operated business.

Additional information and applications can be obtained by visiting www.artdocs.com or www.ideavillage.org or picked up at The Idea Village offices (638 Camp Street) or Jonathan Ferrara Gallery (841 Carondelet Street).

On Saturday, April 21 at 11am at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, ARTDOCS and The Idea Village will host a public lottery to randomly select the grant winners. Artistic entrepreneurs are invited to bring their completed applications between 11am and 3pm. Eligible applicants will be included in a grant pool and winners will be drawn at 4 pm by renowned painter,James Michalopoulos. Artists, entrepreneurs and the community of supporters are invited to watch the lottery and join in the celebration of the New Orleans cultural economy. Refreshments will be served.

ARTDOCS is a pioneering 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, founded in 1999 to address the critical need of uninsured visual artists, writers and performing artists in New Orleans. Since its inception, ARTDOCS has provided over 2,200 artist/patient visits. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, ARTDOCS has expanded its mission to help artists return to New Orleans.

The Idea Village is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation whose mission is to encourage a culture of innovation and provide focused tools and resources to accelerate entrepreneurial ventures in New Orleans. Since its formal inception in 2002, The Idea Village has become the primary driver for entrepreneurship in New Orleans, supported by more than 500 individuals, corporations, local foundations, Tulane University, University of New Orleans, Greater New Orleans, Inc., the City of New Orleans, and the State of Louisiana.