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    Funding for Creative Small Businesses and Creative Entrepreneurs

    Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator

    The Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator (CEA) is designed to pair access to existing small business consulting services with $2,000 grants for creative entrepreneurs who aspire to start their own for-profit business or who operate an existing for-profit micro business.

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    Overview

    The Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator program is designed to pair access to existing small business consulting services with $2,000 grants for creative entrepreneurs who aspire to start their own for-profit business or who operate an existing for-profit micro business.

    Creative entrepreneurs are invaluable assets to communities. They lead innovation, deliver creative products and services, generate economic opportunity, and build community identity. Assisting creative entrepreneurs is part of the pathway to recovery and increased opportunity within a rapidly changing economic environment.

    Additionally, this program advances and prioritizes the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts' overarching value of diversity, equity, and inclusion and prioritize investment in creative entrepreneurs who identify as Black, Indigenous, or persons of color (BIPOC) or those located in and whose work benefits low-income communities.

     

    Take the Next Step in Building Your Business

    PA Partners in the Arts, our network of regional re-granting partners, administer the Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator at the local level.

    Find your CEA program administrator

    Who are creative entrepreneurs?

    Under this program's definition, creative entrepreneurs are individuals who intend to form a business or who operate a for-profit micro business in Pennsylvania within one or more of the following creative industry areas:

    • Marketing – Advertising and marketing agencies & professionals.
    • Architecture – Architecture firms & architects.
    • Visual Arts & Crafts – Galleries, artists, artisans & makers.
    • Design – Product, interior, graphic, and fashion design firms and designers.
    • Film & Media – Film, video, animation, TV & Radio businesses.
    • Digital Games – Companies, programmers & individuals producing games.
    • Music & Entertainment –Producers, venues, musicians & performers.
    • Publishing – Print or electronic businesses & content creators, editors & writers.