During these two years we’ve seen an incredible outpouring of creativity from musicians who have had extra time to create, even in the most challenging of circumstances, and who may have had very few resources. Music has kept our spirits up and connected us over the internet, from radio, to new albums released, to the low-key living-room livestream.

We want to help musicians continue to create and refine their music - give them time, space, and support to develop their best work. The resources and additional security of IMC’s Incubator Programme funding will allow 2 musicians a year of support to explore, experiment, make music that moves us, speaks to us, tells us something.

IMC’s Incubator Programme is a new matched-funding, patron-style system of investment directly in artists, whereby for each subscriber (Incubator Champion) who invests in an artist’s year of work, IMC will match their investment. The Incubator Programme aims to attract 50 Champions to support each artist at a cost of only €5/month (less than two coffees), which will be matched by IMC.

Engagement with artists and their arts is changing. The concept of a performer and an audience is central to the arts, and will always be, however, there are ever more additional ways to engage with audiences who are curious about the artistic process. The more audiences understand the work required to bring music to life on a stage, we hope, the deeper the appreciation for the creator will be. With IMC’s Incubator programme, Champions will subscribe to support the artists, matched by IMC, and IMC will support the Creator both in their work and in shaping insights for the Champions into the art being created.

IMC’s Incubator Programme will:

- Provide an opportunity for 2 improvising musicians to create work over a period of 1 year with the direct support of audiences and Improvised Music Company.
- Make audiences part of the creative process by direct financial support over an extended period
- Provide steady income support for the ongoing creation and development of work outside a performance context
- Develop ongoing communications with audiences
- Bring awareness to the creative process and re-assert the value on the time and space required to bring new work to audiences

To apply for IMC’s Incubator Programme, artists should:

- Be prepared to develop work over a period of 1 year, with monthly updates.
- Have a strong concept to be delivered at the end of one year. This could be the creation of new work, the creation of a new -performance, the development of a new project. You will have to have a completed output at the end of this programme of no less than 12 months.
- Have the facility and willingness to talk about, discuss, and share aspects of your work and creative process.
- Commit to regular communication with Improvised Music Company to assist in delivering updates to Champions (<5 hours per month).
- Commit to regularly monthly updates to Incubator Champions.