The Role of Arts Incubators in Addressing Digital Divide Inequities

Arts incubators have been successful in collecting support among institutional and private stakeholders with the promise of successfully nurturing a new generation of self-reliant artists. These programs focus on a wide range of entrepreneurship topics with the aim of improving the likelihood of success of an artistic career. This chapter focuses on how arts incubators have been addressing digital divide issues, spotlighting solutions to address inequities in the arts. Indeed, arts incubators provide specialized training in technical digital skills related to utilizing and customizing digital technologies, devices, applications, systems, software, and other technological, internet, and media solutions to assist artists and art organizations excel in the online environment. They also impart fundamental transferrable digital skills that facilitate effective work methods, communication, collaboration, and project management within the artistic domain. Furthermore, these incubators emphasize honing digital aesthetic identity skills, empowering artists, and arts organizations to curate a digital persona (brand) and distinctive style or sensibility (Webb and Layton, Arts Market 13(1):33–47, 2023). The primary emphasis of this chapter focuses on how arts incubators bridge the digital divide and dismantle obstacles to digital access. This is achieved through investments in digital infrastructure, particularly in enhancing internet connectivity, and ensuring that individuals facing disadvantages have the necessary access to hardware, critical software, and digital skills training. This project was supported in part by an award from the NEA Research Labs program at the National Endowment for the Arts: Award# 1861816-38-C-20. The opinions expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not represent the views of the National Endowment for the Arts. The National Endowment for the Arts does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information included in this material and is not responsible for any consequence of its use.