The Charlotte Street Foundation, a Kansas City organization launched in 1997 to nurture and support artists, is launching a 12-month Startup Residency program. The program is designed to foster the development of emerging arts and culture startups in the area.
The program offers participants 12 months of free storefront space at Charlotte Street’s Project Space in downtown Kansas City. In addition to the residency, participants will have the opportunity for Artist INC or Artist INC II professional development training, mentoring, networking, and cross-marketing opportunities with Charlotte Street.
Artist INC is a collaborative partnership of ArtsKC-Regional Arts Council, Charlotte Street Foundation, the UMKC Innovation Center, and Mid-America Arts Alliance. Formerly known as KCArtistLink, Artist INC connects Kansas City artists of all disciplines to the tools, resources, and opportunities necessary to develop their entrepreneurial skills and strengthen their artistic practice.
The foundation is looking for “artist-run or artist-centric” organizations that are less than three years old with an established business plan or demonstrated proof of concept. The program will accept both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.
Applications for the Startup Residency program are due by Feb. 6, 2017. Selected participants will begin the 12-month residency on March 6.
“We noticed that a number of ‘startup-like’ efforts were coming up through the Charlotte Street Foundation programming — the studio residency, the venues, and Rocket Grants specifically, but none of those opportunities were really designed to launch a new artist-run entity,” Charlotte Street executive director Amy Kligman said in a release. “Our interest in this is to see startups emerge and become established pieces of Kansas City’s cultural map, contributing to the overall excitement and diversity in our city’s arts ecology.”
Applicants should submit the following to SUBMISSIONS@charlottestreet.org with the subject line: STARTUP.
Since 1997, Charlotte Street has distributed more than $1.1 million in awards and grants to artists and their projects in the Kansas City area.
