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NYC Cultural Innovation Lab

Solutions

Solutions built to last inside your organization.

See three examples below. Each one adapts a model that works in another industry. We bring the people, the systems and the hands-on work.

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R&D Labs, IP Commercialization, and Accelerator & Venture Funds work as one cycle around growing arts revenue.01R&D Labs02IPCommercialization03Accelerator &Venture FundsGrowingarts revenue
01

R&D Labs

The infrastructure and innovation rigor to test ideas with real audiences and turn the results into practices the whole field can use.

Arts organizations are built to put on productions, not to experiment. We build an R&D lab inside your organization with your staff and artists, so ideas get tested with real audiences before big commitments and every result is shared.

A proven model

Bell Labs and BBC R&D

Both gave large institutions a protected place to test new ideas away from day-to-day pressure. Bell Labs did it for AT&T; BBC R&D tests new formats and technology before they reach audiences.

How it works

  • Lab design with your staff and artists: mandate, operating charter and how experiments run
  • An advisory council of specialists in audience growth, workforce and labor, and leadership training who bring the expertise each test needs
  • Small, low-cost tests with real audiences, with pass and fail targets set before they start
  • Training for staff to form a hypothesis, run a test, read the evidence and change course
  • A shared data layer across organizations, so the field learns from every win and every loss

Partner, R&D Labs

Daniel Gomez Seidel

Innovation and service design

Daniel builds innovation capability inside large institutions. At Capital One he co-built the bank’s R&D Lab and trained more than 400 executives in design thinking. He has led service design and agile transformation programs for the World Bank and the United Nations, co-founded the innovation agency in-plural with StrawberryFrog, and mentors at the New Museum’s NEW INC.

02

IP Commercialization

Test, package and license the developed IP already in your vault, building a for-profit layer within your nonprofit’s mission.

This model is focused on one thing: getting the most out of the IP in your vault. We work with your staff to review the rights to your commissions, readings, productions and archive, test titles with audiences and evaluate their market potential. It works like a university technology transfer office: the IP already exists, and the job is to evaluate it, market test it, and either package it for the right buyer or spin it out into a production.

A proven model

University technology transfer, like NYU’s Technology Opportunities & Ventures

Universities review faculty research, protect the rights and license it to industry. The royalties come back to the university and the researcher. We apply the same discipline to creative work.

How it works

  • Rights review across commissions, readings, productions and archive
  • Audience and market testing that shows demand before anyone invests
  • An evaluation of the market potential of each title
  • Packaging and introductions to producers, studios and platforms, or a spin-out into a production
  • Licensing terms that protect the artist and return revenue to your organization

Partners, IP Commercialization

To be announced

  • A development executive who has worked with studios and knows how to find and package scripts for what they buy
  • A leader who has built technology transfer offices at universities
  • An entertainment lawyer who has set up both for-profit and nonprofit entities

Field signals

Pilots prove artistic quality and an audience ecosystem.

  • Be More Chill

    After a regional run, the cast recording, led by “Michael in the Bathroom,” built a large online following that helped carry the show to Off-Broadway and Broadway.

  • Hazbin Hotel

    An independent pilot on YouTube drew tens of millions of views before the series was picked up and released on Prime Video.

  • Hadestown

    Began as a small community production and a concept album, years before New York Theatre Workshop’s production and its eight Tony Awards.

  • Obsession

    Curry Barker built an audience with short horror films on YouTube. His feature, made for $750K, sold to Focus Features for about $15M and grossed more than $500M worldwide.

03

Accelerator & Venture Funds

Take artists and theaters through an accelerator that grows the IP and gives it the best chance to earn revenue.

The IP is at the center. Artists and theaters go through a cohort program together: a set curriculum, audience testing, and the legal and IP setup that keeps the artist in creative control. A dedicated fund then invests in the works that prove their audience, alongside foundations, government partners and aligned investors. The artist keeps majority ownership and your organization keeps a share.

A proven model

Y Combinator and Techstars

Both run cohort-based programs with a set curriculum, mentors and access to partners, and both invest directly in the teams they support. The same structure works for creative work.

Proven at Yale

MOC Innovations and the Cultural Innovation Lab at Yale

MOC Innovations built the accelerator model used by the Cultural Innovation Lab at Yale, working with Connecticut theaters and performing arts centers.

25+
artist teams
10
new companies
$1.35M
raised by projects

How it works

  • A cohort program for artists and theaters, built on a shared curriculum
  • Training in business models, marketing and audience building for each work
  • Paid pilots that show what audiences will support
  • Legal and IP setup that keeps the artist in creative control
  • A fund that invests in proven works, with returns shared by the artist, your organization and the fund

Partner, Accelerator & Venture Funds

MOC Innovations

Frances Pollock, Founder · Director, Cultural Innovation Lab at Yale

MOC Innovations has spent more than five years building arts accelerators, including the model behind the Cultural Innovation Lab at Yale, which works with Connecticut theaters and performing arts centers. They bring a cohort-based curriculum, a proven acceleration model and legal IP structures that keep artists in control of their work, and now bring that model to New York.

Let’s talk

Tell us about your organization and what you want to explore. We’ll follow up to set a time to talk.

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