tbC’s next chapter

tbC has been running its youth arts studio for 13 years. The model's key features include collaboration, mentoring, making, and exhibiting. Although successful, tbC has had trouble monetising its model - even after exploring creative product and service ideas. To date, we have funded the project via small grants, securing around $100,000 in state and national funding. However, sustaining a funding model is an arduous and often unreliable journey.

The reason behind choosing a grants approach to support tbC’s funding needs is that our target audience is young, between 12 and 20-something. As young people are often financially disadvantaged or disempowered due to their age and lack of independence, it is problematic to treat them as a revenue stream. Furthermore, tbC’s mantra is that no young creative should be excluded from the program based on their inability to pay for it. While some parents are willing to pay for the service tbC offers, this is a relationship young tbC members often don’t want to reinforce due to the program's favoured autonomy. At tbC, artists explore and establish independent artistic identities. Members self-select into the program developing ongoing forms of artistic practice. This ongoing practice delivers young creatives artistic agency and status. Member artists find the model’s autonomy, collaborative environment and professional culture and goals very attractive.

However, for tbC to continue growing, we need more financial stability, especially considering one of the project’s key goals is to encourage and support young artists in building their own financially viable artistic practices and careers.

One small revenue stream has been identified. Senior secondary art, studio art and design students pay to visit the tbC studio for talks and/or workshops that support their creative learning and examination. This revenue stream is being developed and has the potential to support tbC’s continued growth.