The TOArts Artist Incubator (TAI) offers one-year of professional development for artists by connecting them with professional advisors, other artists and creatives to launch, solidify, or re-define their careers in the arts, with a focus on creative generation, financial sustainability, and entrepreneurial growth.
This pilot program will launch in August 2025 and run through June 2026.
Applications are now open for the 2025-26 Fellowship!
What is the TOArts Artist Incubator?
Seven Pillars of TAI
Artistic Training
Branding
Creative Generation
Financial Management
Mindset
Networking
Artistic Service/Ripple Effect
Designed for artists and creative solopreneurs, the TAI fellowship ignites the spark between artistic work and creative enterprise.
Each artist will be offered an individualized track specific to their goals and needs.
TAI fellows are required to attend monthly in-person group Incubator meetings, as well as monthly one-on-one Zoom sessions with the advisor team. Throughout the course of the year, the TAI fellows will focus on the completion of short and long-term goals related to all 7 pillars of the TAI curriculum. TAI culminates in a final showcase presentation in which the artists will present the cumulative work of their fellowship year for grant or future development opportunities.
In addition, a Ripple Effect (or Artistic Service) component is required of each fellow that will be applicable and individualized to each artist’s specialization.
Who is it for?
TAI is open to emerging, mid-career, and legacy artists in all arts fields.
TOArts defines an artist as someone who regularly engages in an artistic, creative, or cultural practice and pursues such practice at a professional level.
The TAI incubator application is open to the following disciplines:
- Performing Arts including dancers, actors, musicians, singers, songwriters, puppeteers, composers, choreographers, and production related arts and entertainment workers.
- Media Arts including television, radio, documentaries, digital media, animation, new media, and production related arts and entertainment workers.
- Interdisciplinary Art including installation art, public and performance art, and time-based, experiential art.
- Literary Arts including writers of fiction, creative non-fiction, plays, poetry, lyrics and literature.
- Visual Arts & Folk Arts/Crafts including painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, print-making, photography, mixed media, design, beadwork, masks, textiles, jewelry, and glass.
Monthly In-Person
Meeting Schedule
Meetings are held from 6 to 9pm in Thousand Oaks
Session 1 – September 9, 2025
Session 2 – October 7, 2025
Session 3 – November 4, 2025
Session 4 – December 2, 2025
Session 5 – January 20, 2026
Session 6 – February 10, 2026
Session 7 – March 3, 2026
Session 8 – April 14, 2026
Session 9 – May 12, 2026
Session 10 – June 2, 2026
Culminating Showcase: Second week of June 2026
You may only miss 2 meetings. Prior to applying, please ensure that the dates and times work for you.
Application
The application period opens April 6, 2025 and will close at 11:59 pm on May 20, 2025.
Semi-finalists will be interviewed via Zoom as part of the second-round application process between June 16 and June 19, 2025.
TAI fellowships will be awarded with input from a panel comprised of TOArts staff, Artist Incubator advisors, and creative leaders.
The panel will use a score system based on the following criteria:
a.) Artistic Engagement
b.) Artistic Commitment
c.) Growth Potential
Applicants 21 years of age and older may apply.
The value of the TOArts’ Artist Incubator is $8,000 per fellowship, but thanks to our incredible community of donors, the fellowship program is offered for only $400 with additional scholarships available.
TOArts is committed to ensuring that our audiences, performers, and artists alike in our community experience a sense of belonging, connection, and happiness through the arts, inclusive of diverse factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, ability, or other individual identities.
For additional information email ethan@toarts.org or call (805) 449-2710