CREATEInfinity Incubator
We seek support to help cover the costs of a physical space and the resources needed to operate an incubator production studio that serves as a safe place to create sound, art, vision and expression. Through workshops, guest speakers, access to experts and mentors, we bring artists together to inspire conversation and spark collaboration across projects. During other operating hours we facilitate artist development, content production, go to market strategy and storyline creation.
Please list the organizations collaborating on this proposal.
Trip Digital, Inc., Choosing Independence Foundation
Briefly tell us a story that demonstrates how your organization turns inspiration into impact.
The Infinity Incubator concept came to life through the insight that, "creative passion lies in the playground." And as the landscape shifted from analog to digital, how people communicate, consume, produce and create content has significantly shifted. The knowledge, the education and the resources needed to navigate this new landscape are often limited in-access to, or underfunded.
Eleanore is 21, lives in Manhattan, NY with her two sisters and mother in a one bedroom apartment. She began teaching herself how to play piano at 13 and writing songs at 15 after her parents divorce. Eleanore spent the past year learning the recording process under the development of Trip Digital. This process empowered Eleanore to confidently chase her dream and apply to the Clive Davis School of Music with a better understanding of how she could pay for it.
King Shaw 29, is now a world renowned Dancer, actor, writer and producer from Los Angeles, CA. Shaw is a shape shifter of the industry, from dancing on tour stages with Jay-Z and Beyonce’ to, writing mixing and recording his own original music in the studio. King Shaw is a true entertainer that needed perspective and inspiration along the way. Trip Digital plays a big part in the developmental aspects of his career.
Khzzari 22, is a poet, writer and rapper from Newark, NJ was inspired by Soul, Jazz and the original Boom Bap sounds of Hip Hop. His plans of being the educated left of center artist led him to the Trip Digital. Over the past two years, he’s recorded over 50 records and 12 music videos while studying the industry. Khzzari is fully confident and ready to take on the new digital music industry.
Young MG 28, has been living on the streets of Brooklyn, NY since he was 12. The last decade and a half has been a struggle with far and few opportunities to follow his dreams, share a story or stay out of trouble. Trip Digital provided space, process and resources to share his story, get paid from performances and develop an understanding of how to take an idea from his head, create a product, bring it to market and engage with others by sharing his story.
Which of the CREATE metrics will your submission impact?
Employment in the creative industries
Minority- and women-owned firms
In which areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?
East LA
City of Los Angeles
DTLA
How will your project make LA the best place to CREATE?
* Over the past six years we have developed, curated, tested, measured and repeated smaller versions of this project in NYC, Austin and LA markets. We've focused on applying our combined knowledge from corporate careers, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame mentors, and personal experience into developing a multiplatform model that can help a young aspiring artist fulfil her or his dream of a commercially viable creative career.
* Our target is young independent artists on the path to a creative professional career. Our secondary target are tenured, successful, later generation artists looking to pass on their wisdom and experience. Our tertiary target are brands, businesses, organizations and foundations who support our mission to be the bridge connecting the rear guard to the new guard during these times of change.
* To date, we've interviewed over 200 creators and continue to support four new guests a week on Trip Digital Radio, a platform with +100k avid-listeners. In the past 30 days, over 60k minutes were viewed and listened to on youtube, spotify and iTunes by over 4k people. We stream every Wednesday from 7-9 PM PDT on Dashradio.com/nativerhymes, a non-commercial / ad-free digital radio platform with 10m subscribers.
* Past six months we've began to beta test the Infinity Incubator concept at a live / work studio space in an artist community. We've identified clear paths to collaboratively build and nurture relationships with each target audience. As a result we are actively curating a studio that is accessible to young creatives, students and independent professionals as a functional resource and network for a low accessible cost.
Timeline:
* Q2 APR-JUN: Round two of beta test recruitment and revenue model to determine the optimum pricing and operational variables. Adjust and tweek model based on past six-months of learnings. Explore new real estate locations with mixed use live/work, and commercial only raw spaces.
* Q3'19: Implement new budget and activate
* Q4'19: Measure / recap Q3, activate new programming
* Q1'20: Measure / recap Q4, implement program tweeks
* Q2'20: Measure / recap Q1, activate new programming
Measurable Progress:
* Measurement of degree to which incubator helped create employment in the creative industry by cultivating collaboration of minority- and women-creatives.
* Number of collaborators, types and backgrounds
* Quantity of content collaboratively created
* Documentation of process and story of its creation
In what stage of innovation is this project?
Pilot project (testing a new idea on a small scale to prove feasibility)
Please explain how you will define and measure success for your project.
KPIs:
* Create a directory of all collaborating artists and project details
* Documentation of all projects with public record
* Short form content at program end that recaps entire grant process, success, failures, lessons learned, recommendations and qualitative summary of program impact based on collaborator and community surveys, testimonials, interviews and responses.