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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeart Radio.

Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast Podcast.

Today's tip is to become a patron.

It may be more affordable than you think to commission art in its various forms or to support an innovator's pursuits.

Being a patron can be a satisfying and effective way to get more great work into the world.

So if you studied the Renaissance in school, you no doubt learned about the Medici's and others who had commissioned masterpieces from famous artists.

And while it would be really cool to be the guy who commissioned Michelangelo, that doesn't sound like it would be within the realm of most of our capabilities.

And perhaps not at that level.

But the truth is that commissioning art in its various forms might be more affordable than you think.

I certainly found this when I helped found the competition for young composers, which has been run by the young New Yorker's chorus for almost two decades now.

We invited young composers to send us samples of their work, and then we'd choose three finalists, and commission works from each of them, with a guarantee of certain prize amounts for those pieces.

The dollar amounts were around a thousand dollars, and we got some pretty fantastic choral works out of that.

More established composers would be more expensive for sure, but we are talking within the range that a small foundation or perhaps even a small choir could conceivably support.

I'd personally someday like to commission a concert-length choral work that's either acapella or written for one instrument.

Lots of choirs can't afford a whole orchestra, so that would broaden the amount of accessible concert repertoire.

As for visual art, I had purchased a few pieces from a particular artist I found exhibiting in the torpedo factory in Old Town, Alexandria several years ago.

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