While names like Zac Posen, Adrien Brody and Adrian Grenier serve as real-life examples of what the organization Gen Art has helped accomplish by showcasing emerging talent, perhaps nothing drives the point of its mission home better than the artwork design for its upcoming benefit.

It is a piece called Thriving Hearts by Anne Faith Nicholls and it shows a heart that goes from stark to blossoming in four progressive images. I could almost hear a voice-over as I studied it -- “This is a heart with no exposure to culture … this is a heart on music … with paintings all around … watching an exquisite film … as models float by wearing the latest fashions.”

It provokes this thought: Where does your heart fall on the spectrum of creative wasteland to joyful abundance?

If your ticker is feeling art deprived, the June 24 benefit in New York -- titled “I (Heart) Gen Art” -- will be a 15^th anniversary celebration of the company founded by brothers Ian and Stefan Gerard. On hand for viewing and purchase will be over 70 works of art donated by Gen Art members and supporters.

“This is coming full circle for us,” said Stefan Gerard, president of Gen Art, in our recent interview. “We launched our organization with an art benefit.”

That was in 1994 and while Gen Art currently sponsors over 120 events a year in cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and Chicago, this one is different -- it is for and about Gen Art. Typically the organization’s events are held to shine the spotlight on an up-and-coming talent in visual art, fashion design, film or music, but the nation’s recession has hit Gen Art in the pocketbook. Since its beginning, about 80% of the company’s revenues have come from corporate partners. That is no longer the case. Cutbacks have included staff.

“It started in October,” said Gerard, whose background is in marketing and advertising. “The bottom fell out of the financial market and companies were scrambling. The marketing budget is the first to go. We were a big part of that.”

And so an appeal was made to the membership stating that Gen Art as they know it was in jeopardy. Among the many who responded in a heartbeat was designer Zac Posen, who calls his invitation to debut his work in Gen Art’s 2001 Fresh Faces in Fashion, back when he was just 21 years old, an “enormous gift.”

“It was a vote of confidence for our new business,” Posen said. “I was able to create a capsule collection which was put down the runway. It was pure excitement to have all the retailers and editors there -- it was superb.”

It was a far cry from Gen Art’s first fashion event in 1995. CEO Ian Gerard swore that night he would never do another one.

“A million things went wrong,” he said. “We had it in July. We didn’t even know what Fashion Week was back then.”

That was part of the charm. They didn’t even have a business plan. The impetus for Ian Gerard was hearing from his artist friends (fellow Vassar fine arts graduates) that they couldn’t get galleries to show their work. By then, he was at New York University Law School and the idea of working with people his own age appealed to him.

So the brothers, along with friend Melissa Neumann, essentially harnessed willful energy and stayed open to possibilities despite the fact that the cultural climate was skittish. At the time, the National Endowment for the Arts was under fire. With an air of youthful invincibility on their side, they began by distributing flyers downtown inviting artists to participate in a show of their peers, by their peers. There was a huge outpouring of interest. From there the company grew very quickly from just working with visual artists to adding fashion, film and music.

“It has always been our goal to help those with talent have the means to use it,” Ian Gerard said. “The idea was, do your creations and show up with them. We’ll do everything else.”

Soon Gen Art had a culturally conscious and growing following in the 18-39 age range, an appealing demographic to corporate sponsors.

“The downside of our success became our reliance on the model of corporate marketing dollars,” said Ian Gerard, a former practicing corporate and real estate transactional attorney. “None of us had been around a recession. We had weathered 9/11 and even grew from it. We have learned things from this that will make us even stronger down the road.”

Gen Art’s mission moving forward is boosted by the fact that there has been a growing appreciation of the arts in our society in the last decade or so and that shows like Project Runway are part of a trend in showcasing emerging talent.

As for Ian Gerard’s talent, he insisted he has none, but when pressed finally relented, “I’m good at bringing people together.”

People with thriving hearts, that is.

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.