In 2006, weary of the endless political battles over the NEA and worried about the cuts to its funding, the Ford, Prudential, Rockefeller, and Rasmuson Foundations joined forces to create a private-sector equivalent, United States Artists. Says former chair Susan Berresford, “There was an idea that outside the government, there could be an endowment to free yourself from understandable political pressures [in order] to take some risks.” – New York Observer