If you’re finding it harder to spend money with all the despair in the world right now, a new fund-raiser is encouraging  art collectors to buy works that will simultaneously aid relief efforts.

The initiative, titled “Pictures for Elmhurst,” launched today to sell $150 prints by 96 New York-based photographers, including Jack Pierson, Tyler Mitchell, Peter Sutherland, Farah Al Qasimi, and others, with 95 percent of the proceeds going to Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. The hospital will use the funds from the sale, which runs through April 20, to buy ventilators, masks, surgical scrubs, goggles, and other equipment.

The project was inspired by a similar fund-raiser in hard-hit Bergamo, Italy, which raised a stunning €727,600 (about $796,000) to benefit the Pope Giovanni XXIII Hospital.

One of the founders of “Pictures for Elmhurst,” Samantha Casolari, is from Italy and called on her friends in the industry to chip in and bring the project stateside. So far, she says the “response has been overwhelming.” In just its first four hours, the project has raised $90,000.

Located in the heart of Queens, Elmhurst is a safety-net hospital that serves mainly low-income patients, many of whom do not have a primary care physician, and has now designated 95 percent of its facility to COVID-19 cases.

The photographs, all printed by Brooklyn-based Griffin Editions, will be shipped once non-essential businesses reopen.

See some of the available images, below.

Sara Cwynar, Cami. Courtesy of the artist.

Cheryl Dunn, cupcake bike. Courtesy of the artist.

Brianna Capozzi, Chloë and Mattie. Courtesy of the artist.

Peter Sutherland, Energy Solutions, (2017). Courtesy of the artist.

Oto Gillen, July 4, 2019. Courtesy of the artist.