Continued from here, where we were just about to talk about adopting art ... and I don't mean a kid named Arthur.

In an issue of the Christian Science Monitor from a while back ... I never see these things until they've been around a while ... the back story, titled "Adoption: entree for art lovers", caught my eye.

An interesting idea has emerged that allows people who may not be able to afford to buy original art to own pieces through adopting them, and artists are apparently happy to have their work go to loving homes.

It works like this ...

Artists post their work on the web site of, the Fine Art Adoption Network (FAAN) where the images can be perused by visitors ... photolisting, if you will. If someone falls in love with a piece, they write to the artist, explain who they are and why they want to adopt the specific work of art. If the artist decides the match is right and that the piece will have a good home, arrangements are made.

Usually, people who want to own art must write a check. Adopters instead bring the the transaction their response to a work, a willingness to articulate it, and the courage to risk rejection.

The concept is striking the art world as verging on the subversive.

"Ideally, the work is going to people who would not otherwise own the artwork," says the founder of FAAN.

And given that some adopters are as young as age 12, FAAN may be educating future collectors -- even perhaps subverting the social order by introducing art to youngsters who don't meet the art world's criteria of money and status.

One fifth-grade teacher has used the art adoption site as a teaching tool, having students choose a work, then write to the artists with the reasons behind their choice.

As the article concludes, this is, "a far more challenging task that writing a check."

I know I'd love to write my way into some wonderful piece of art for my home. Like other uses of the word 'adoption' it feels like a soul-to-soul thing.

Perhaps other adoptive families may end up being so in more ways than they'd ever suspected.