Arts Business Incubator Program Welcomes New Cohort

Program helps support promising arts business start-ups through education, mentorship, and funding.

NYFA is pleased to announce the selection of the newest cohort for its Arts Business Incubator (ABI) Program, which provides NYC start-ups with intensive training in the fundamentals of starting and running an arts-based business, customized mentorship, and direct funding. The 18-month program will kick off on January 17 with 10 days of intensive training on legal, financial, and marketing topics and strategic, goal-minded methods for growing a business. Throughout the rest of the program, cohort members will receive custom-tailored, formalized support from NYFA staff and their network of experts.

This year’s cohort of six arts businesses were chosen based on their potential for creating jobs for artists, energizing diverse communities, and bringing art into the larger economy in dynamic ways. ABI, which welcomed its first group of cohorts in 2015, is made possible by the generous support of the Scherman Foundation’s Katherine S. and Axel G. Rosin Fund.

The new ABI cohort consists of the following six businesses:

BlckPrism: BlckPrism is an online destination that makes Black Art accessible to Millennial collectors through discovery, content, and e-Commerce.

CulturePass: CulturePass combines data science and the human touch of seasoned curators to personalize your monthly arts calendar. Subscribers receive handpicked tickets to arts and culture activities unique to their interests and delivered right to their door.  

The Flying Squid: The Flying Squid is a company that produces multicultural and customizable storybook apps that allow children of any gender or race from all over the world to personalize the hero of the story to their liking – including recording their own narration.

Program: {PROGRAM} is a digital zine that explores the intersection of art and emerging technology. To this end, {PROGRAM} couples artists and coders to create interactive and immersive editions of their work for touchscreen, virtual reality, and augmented reality.

Pryor Hill Productions: Pryor Hill Productions is a New York-based production company specializing in ethnically diverse long and short form content for film, TV, and digital platforms. Specifically they leverage their film/tv industry relationships and experience to break new talent and champion filmmakers of color who tell stories that are uniquely personal and relevant to a global audience.

Study Center: Artist Caroline Woolard, who has shown work at the Museum of Modern Art and is known because of documentaries about her work on PBS program Art:21, is making a consortium for artists who offer exercises in listening to corporate clients in half-day retreats.

For additional information on the ABI program, please contact [email protected].

Image: ABI Workshop, Photo Credit: Judy Cai