City Arts Lab teaches artists and creative entrepreneurs to run their practice as a sustainable business. We bring the program to your city. Sponsors underwrite it. Participants pay nothing.
Are you an artist? Join our mailing list to hear about upcoming cohorts in your city.
A business at the end. Not a notebook of aspirations.
Most artists were never taught to think about their practice as a business. Not because they can't — because nobody showed them how.
The Lab starts there. Revenue streams in work you're already doing. Pricing and packaging creative services. Contracts, invoicing, distribution, building an audience. The stuff that turns a practice into a livelihood.
Then you learn to build what you used to hire out. A producer builds their own sample licensing marketplace. A designer builds a client portal that handles briefs, revisions, and invoicing. A musician launches a direct-to-fan subscription — no platform middleman, no 15% cut. Vibecoding is a core skill in the program because if you understand your business model you should be able to build the tools to run it yourself.
We don't touch AI tools that generate creative work. We think those are corrosive. What we teach are the ones that put infrastructure in your hands.
Four programs run by the founding team. Each one fed directly into the Lab's curriculum and operating model.
In partnership with Prócora. 18 participants. All 18 completed the program. Each left with a developed business plan spanning industries from music to fashion to digital services.
Warner Bros. Discovery × Acme Innovation. 13 companies selected from hundreds of applicants for a startup accelerator on the WBD studio lot. Media platforms, software, digital marketplaces.
Students build arts-based products and services on the Raidar platform — from concept to deployed product, with real business models and real users. The academic foundation of the Lab's curriculum.
Sponsor-funded. We need a venue introduction and your community channels. Your city gets economic development, equity programming, and civic branding for minimal lift.
Founding Sponsors co-design the inaugural program. Toolkit integration, co-branded content, panel presence, and documented outcomes built around your objectives.
Co-develop the local program, place students alongside creative entrepreneurs, and give your institution a visible, documented role in the city's creative economy.