Advertising, it’s often said, lies at the intersection of art and commerce. Some would describe it as art in service of commerce. Which is fair enough, as rough characterizations go, but advertising is hardly the only creative discipline in which this relationship with business holds true. Look at the entertainment industry, for instance—how much of its product (and it is frequently referred to as product) is developed without an eye toward eventual marketability? Art for its own sake is a rare thing.

But what about the inverse relationship—commerce in service of art? How often do you see that? Actually, it’s not uncommon, if your notion of commerce extends to foundations and fundraising and government programs and other financial means of supporting the arts. Of course, many would argue that what exists is not nearly sufficient.

Fortunately, and quite interestingly, there’s a whole new way for commerce to support art. It’s called Kickstarter, and it’s leveraging the same kind of Web 2.0 thinking that has created financial windfalls for all types of innovative businesses.

The people behind Kickstarter describe it as a new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavors. They believe that “a good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide,” and “a large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.”

Bringing those two quoted aspects of their system together is the Kickstarter website. The “good idea, communicated well” half is accomplished through an online directory of projects in need of funding. Creators—artists, filmmakers, musicians, designers, writers, illustrators, curators, performers, and more—are given free space to describe their projects, using not only text but pictures and video; they must also specify what funding is needed to complete their projects. The other half of the equation, the large group of people with money and encouragement, is comprised of the site’s visitors. They review projects and make contributions through the site. For these altruistic individuals, it’s often a micro-lending kind of scale—think $20—but the money is neither a loan nor an investment. The only return is the satisfaction in contributing toward the completion of a project, plus whatever rewards the project creator might choose to offer as thanks—for instance, an artist looking for funds to print a graphic novel might promise a free copy to anyone who contributes $50 or more.

What makes the model unique, according to Kickstarter, is its all-or-nothing funding method. Each project lists a deadline along with its funding goal—if the project is not fully funded by the deadline, no money changes hands.

To get an idea of the range and variety of projects that this new model has attracted, just visit the site—kickstarter.com. Maybe you’d like to put some of your own commerce to work for the sake of art.