The fact that we support an emerging field of practice differentiates us from other arts institutions and makes us more reliant on the community we serve,” Salditch wrote. “We need the artists we support to give back to our efforts.” In turn, proceeds from Rhizome’s 2011 $25,000 pledge drive will go toward an annual Commissions program of 11 grants ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, event programming including performance and media work, and online resources for artists, among other projects. While AMP and Rhizome both circumvent the traditional commercial gallery system of representation and commercial sales, that doesn’t mean that artists working in innovative media can’t thrive in a gallery setting — it’s just harder to sell a computer-based sculpture or JPEG file than a painting on canvas. New York’s bitforms gallery, opened in November 2001, has spent the past decade creating a sustainable sales system for innovative, technology-based art. “We have tried to educate and create a platform for collectors and curators” about new media art, said bitforms director Steven Sacks, in order to “create the ability to sell the works and have the artists and gallery profit from them.