We’re excited to announce the open call for Kickstarter’s Fall 2019 Creators-in-Residence program.

Whether you’re a first-time creator seeking one-on-one mentorship or a repeat creator looking to fulfill your rewards, our Creators-in-Residence program can give you the time and space to move your project forward.

Launched in 2017, our Creators-in-Residence program invites NYC-based creators in the process of planning, launching, or about to fulfill a Kickstarter campaign to join us at our Brooklyn HQ for a three-month residency. Past residents have included product designer Krystal Persaud, games designer Jordan Draper, artist Nicholas O’Brien, author Ytasha L. Womack, and choreographer Raja Feather Kelly.

The Fall 2019 session will run from Tuesday, September 10, through Friday, December 13.

During the residency, each creator will pair with a staff mentor who specializes in their area of interest and will offer guidance on how to manage a Kickstarter campaign. Residents receive access to a dedicated workspace, as well as our theater, recording studio, library, meeting rooms, and kitchen. They also have opportunities to be featured in Kickstarter-produced editorial content, and are invited to attend regular workshops, talks, and performances that put them in conversation with other creators and Kickstarter staff.

Apply here for the upcoming season by Wednesday July 31, 2019. Creators will be notified on Thursday August 15 if they’ve been selected for the program.

The program will mentor 10 social practice artists in the UK as they prepare to launch projects this fall.

Kickstarter has always been a place where artists can share projects that engage with politics and society—projects that affect communities and environments, create dialogue around key societal issues, and enable social and political change. These ideas resonate with Kickstarter backers who value the platform as a place to support projects that break down political barriers and invite others to move towards change.

On Kickstarter in the UK, we’ve noticed a rise in social practice projects addressing urgent concerns about how we live now: the climate emergency, Brexit and our relationship with continental Europe, the refugee crisis, our ageing population, and the effect of government austerity policies on marginalised communities.

To continue to support this work, Kickstarter has partnered with the collective Social Art Network (SAN) to mentor 10 artists as they prepare to launch social practice projects this fall. “What better way to help our sector grow and be resilient than to use Kickstarter’s expertise to help drive community-driven projects towards collective and collaborative financial success,” says artist and SAN’s co-founder R.M. Sánchez-Camus. “This program only begins with these 10 artists as a pilot. We are aiming for long-term strategies that can help artists working in this field be resilient and self-sufficient. To have their efforts supported and to shine.”

For social practice artists in the wider Kickstarter community, we’ll also run a public webinar and share additional resources for creators.

The second rule on our Rules page reads: “Projects must be honest and clearly presented.” But what do we mean by that? To provide some context for this rule, we’re releasing a new page today, “Honest and Clear Project Presentation,” and an accompanying feature for creators starting new projects.

Essentially our rule about honest presentation means that projects can’t mislead people or misrepresent facts. It also means that creators need to be candid with backers about what they plan to accomplish. For projects that plan to manufacture and distribute something complex, like hardware or gadgets, we require working prototypes and don’t allow misleading imagery.

Pour passer à la version française, faites défiler la page.

Throughout the month of June, Kickstarter and the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie (ENSP) will be spotlighting the work of five emerging photographers in France.

Our goal is threefold: help these talented photographers realize a project they’re passionate about, share their work with an international audience, and help them build a community around their practice.

Your work takes risks. Your project can, too. 

Over the past 10 years the Kickstarter community has learned a thing or two about how to develop and run a Kickstarter campaign. This July, we invite you to rethink everything with Break Kickstarter. 

Stretch the limits of our platform

Break Kickstarter is an initiative supporting unconventional campaigns, running from July 15 to August 15. You’re invited to play with the structure or concept of running a campaign, and stretch the limits of our platform. Take it apart, put it back together, and try something new.

Experimentation can lead to new ideas and new ways of seeing. By reimagining the very components of Kickstarter’s platform, we hope that you’ll discover new ways to find support for your work and to connect with the people who love it. 

Today we are excited to announce that Kickstarter is available in two new languages: Traditional Chinese and Italian. We’d like to extend a warm welcome to Chinese and Italian speakers around the world, and especially to backers and creators who can now use Kickstarter in their native language.

Kickstarter and gal-dem teamed up to host a workshop for women and nonbinary people of color where artists shared inspiring stories, practical skills, and tips for bringing creative projects to life. 

Ideas flourish when they’re shared with others. At Kickstarter, one of the most powerful ways we support artists is by offering dedicated time and space to develop projects alongside fellow creators.

To mark Kickstarter’s 10th birthday on April 30, our UK team partnered with the magazine gal-dem to host an event for women and nonbinary people of color. With drinks and pizza in hand we welcomed our guests to Second Home London Fields, a venue dedicated to creative collaboration, for an evening of presentations, discussion, and lively workshop sessions with gal-dem founder Liv Little, The Literary Consultancy director Aki Schilz, Pakistan for Women creator Maliha Abidi, and Granby Workshop operations manager and artist Sumuyya Khader.

Ten years ago this week, Kickstarter landed on the World Wide Web, and our whole office erupted in cheers. Except there was no office, just some folks working out of their New York City apartments. The office came in 2010. A few other things have changed since then. For example, 16 million of you have backed a Kickstarter project!

We’re kicking off our big tenth birthday celebration today with a few things you might enjoy: