Artist Corporations

A few months ago I was on a Zoom with a theater director. He's been working professionally for twenty years. Directed plays that have been seen by tens of thousands of people. Won awards. Trained the next generation. When I asked him about his financial situation, he paused and said: “I've never had health insurance through my work. I've never had a retirement account. I've never owned anything I've made.”

Twenty years. Tens of thousands of audience members. Awards on the shelf. And no health insurance, no retirement, no ownership. This is not an unusual story. This is the norm.

The Artist Corporation is being built to change this. Not through charity or grants or hoping the market gets kinder. Through structure. Through law. Through giving creative people the same kind of economic machinery that has powered wealth creation in every other sector of the economy.

Here's where we are.

What we did in 2025

2025 was the year we moved from concept to coalition. We introduced the Artist Corporation to the world and began the hard work of making it real.

Built a coalition in Colorado. We made four trips to Colorado, meeting with arts organizations, university programs, creative collectives, and individual artists. We sat in living rooms and studios, at coffee shops and co-working spaces, listening to what creative people need and explaining what the A-Corp could offer.
Drafted legislation. Working with corporate attorneys and policy experts, we drafted the Artist Corporation Act -- comprehensive legislation that defines the A-Corp as a new legal entity with governance structures, ownership rules, and IP protections designed specifically for creative work.
Hired an economist. We commissioned a full fiscal and economic impact analysis of the Artist Corporation Act. The results confirmed what we believed: the A-Corp would be a net positive for state economies, generating tax revenue, creating jobs, and keeping creative talent in-state.
Secured a bill sponsor. A member of the Colorado Senate agreed to sponsor the Artist Corporation Act. This is the critical step that takes legislation from an idea to a bill with a number and a hearing date.
Built relationships with power. We met with the Governor's office, arts councils, and key stakeholders across Colorado's political landscape. The A-Corp has allies at every level.
Grew the community. More than 4,000 artists and creators signed up to become an A-Corp. Musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, writers, designers, dancers, theater makers, photographers -- the breadth of the community is extraordinary.

What we're doing in 2026

This is the year the Artist Corporation Act becomes a bill. Here's the plan:

Introduce the Artist Corporation Act in Colorado. Our bill sponsor will introduce the legislation in the Colorado General Assembly. We'll be there to testify, to bring artists to the statehouse, and to make the case that creative people deserve a legal structure designed for them.
Launch bills in other states. Colorado is the starting point, not the finish line. We're already in conversations with lawmakers in multiple states about introducing similar legislation. The goal is a wave of A-Corp bills across the country.
Build the infrastructure. When the law passes, artists will need tools to form and manage their A-Corps. We're building a registration wizard, financial calculators, governance templates, and IP management tools. The technology should be ready when the law is.
Grow the movement. We need more voices. More artists declaring their interest. More stories about why this matters. More people showing up when it's time to tell lawmakers what creative communities need.

A long-term vision

Here's what we're really building: an A-Corp economy.

Think about what the C-Corp made possible. The C-Corp is the legal structure behind Apple, Google, and every company on the stock exchange. It was designed to pool capital, limit liability, and scale enterprises. It created an economy optimized for a specific set of values: growth, efficiency, shareholder return.

The A-Corp is designed to optimize for different values: creative freedom, collective ownership, artistic mission, and the long-term sustainability of creative practice. Where the C-Corp asks “how do we maximize shareholder value?” the A-Corp asks “how do we maximize the conditions for great work?”

Virgil Abloh once said that the ultimate measure of creative success is “the freedom to make another one.” Not the money from the last project. Not the awards. The freedom to keep making. The A-Corp is designed to maximize exactly that: the freedom to make another one.

Imagine a world where bands can form A-Corps and share ownership of their catalog fairly. Where filmmakers can build collectives that retain rights to their work. Where visual artists can pool resources for shared studios and equipment without giving up creative control. Where writers can form publishing cooperatives with governance structures that protect their editorial independence. Where any group of creative people can build something together and know that the legal structure underneath them was designed for exactly what they're doing.

That's the A-Corp economy. And it starts with a single law in a single state.

We're already many

More than 4,000 artists have signed up to become an A-Corp. That number keeps growing. Every week, new artists find us and add their names. The demand is real and it's broad.

The Artist Corporations Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to building economic and political power for creative people. Every dollar goes to the legislative effort, the tools, and the community.

I serve as Executive Director. Lena Imamura is our Managing Director, bringing deep experience in arts administration and community organizing. Our board includes Jennifer Arceneaux and Mikael Moore, CEO of Wondaland and manager of Janelle Monáe. We're a small team doing big work, and we're building the organization to match the ambition of the mission.

Artists don't need pity. Artists need power. The power to own their work. The power to build wealth from their creativity. The power to collaborate on their own terms. The power to sustain a creative practice for a lifetime.

Together, we're going to build it.

Let's go get 'em.

Yancey Strickler
The Artist Corporations Foundation