Workshops + Mentorship + Funding
The Arts Startup Incubator supports creative entrepreneurship at the Institute, building on MIT’s legacy of students turning innovative ideas into successful businesses. Formerly known as the Creative Arts Competition, the program equips a cohort of teams with mentors, classes, and workshops to hone their products, business models, and pitches and compete for a $15,000 prize to launch.
This year’s competition runs from January through April 2025 and features events before and during the program period for students to get feedback on their business concepts and build team capacity. Ventures anywhere between the idea phase and ready-to-launch are encouraged to apply by November 1.
Selected teams are part of a cohort program designed to accelerate arts-focused ventures. All teams receive seed funding and 1:1 mentorship from industry experts, including distinguished faculty, alumni, and creative entrepreneurs as well as access to exclusive classes and workshops that help hone their business models, develop prototypes, and prepare to pitch.
Finalist teams pitch their ventures to a live panel of judges and compete for the $15K grand prize. All finalist teams receive $2,500 towards their venture.
The $15K Arts Startup Incubator is supported in part by the Council for the Arts at MIT.
Criteria and Frequently Asked Questions
Details about eligibility, judging criteria, and common questions.
Timeline and Application Process
Apply in the fall semester, develop a business plan over the course of the year, and present a venture to a live judging panel in spring.
Past Recipients
Businesses ranging from online music mentorship to VR for the blind.
2024 First Prize Winner: Culture Crate
According to a Unesco survey, there are 671 cultural artforms in danger of disappearing during our lifetimes. Nadine Zaza MS and ME ‘25, wants to change that. “The loss of these artforms means the loss of identity, knowledge systems, and economic power in these cultures,” says Zaza, whose team Culture Crate won the $15,000 first prize at the 2024 MIT Arts Startup Incubator finals on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Culture Crate is a hybrid tactile and digital learning platform that brings many of these endangered artforms into the classroom. “Teaching with culturally responsive artforms can boost student engagement, increase empathy, and help transform cultural loss into cultural value.”
Culture Crate designs and markets kits containing art and craft materials linked to a specific region and artform. The kits are supported with online lesson plans and resources. One current kit includes materials for artisanal soap making in the Arab world. Other kits, soon to be released, feature a board game played in ancient Mesopotamia, and materials for tatreez, a traditional Palestinian form of embroidery. “We intend to expand across a wide range of artforms and cultures,” says Zaza. “But right now we are particularly interested in underrepresented and misunderstood cultures and people.”