Five Connecticut cultural organizations will take the stage at the Yale Innovation Summit this spring as the inaugural cohort of Collective CT — a first-of-its-kind statewide accelerator that treats arts nonprofits as incubators for scalable, IP-driven ventures.

The cohort includes The Bushnell Performing Arts Center, Garde Arts Center, TheatreWorks New Milford, Arts Council of Greater New Haven, and Ivoryton Playhouse—has spent eight months developing new artistic work as business ventures, complete with MVPs, revenue models, and ownership structures. Their showcase at the Summit marks the public debut of a mode Yale Ventures and the Connecticut DECD are betting can reshape how cultural production gets build and funded, from Connecticut to across the country.

Collective CT at its core is a deconstruction and a reimagination of cultural production. It is a space to breakdown assumptions and imagine what is possible if we as artists build systems that work for our work.  —Frances Pollock, Director, Cultural Innovation Lab at Yale

That ambition traces back to last year's Summit, where a conversation with Connecticut state officials sparked a simple but provocative idea: what if New Haven — and the state at large — became the Silicon Valley of the arts?

What is Collective CT?

Collective CT is an 8-month accelerator designed to reimagine how cultural work is developed, resourced, and sustained using non-profits as incubators. Built on the infrastructure of Yale’s innovation ecosystem, the program adapts the principles of tech transfer and venture development to the arts and humanities—what we call applied humanities.
Through a cohort-based model, Collective CT brings together nonprofit institutions and creative entrepreneurs to:

• Develop minimum viable products (MVPs) for new artistic and cultural ventures
  Build sustainable business models grounded in ownership, revenue participation, and long-term value creation
• Access tailored support across legal structuring, financial planning, and capital strategy
• Engage with a network of advisors, investors, and institutional partners
  Present their work at the Yale Innovation Summit, connecting to real pathways for funding and growth

At its core, Collective CT positions nonprofit cultural institutions not just as presenters of work—but as incubators of IP-driven ventures with the potential to scale and generate lasting economic and civic impact. 

The Inaugural Nonprofit Cohort

The following five organizations represent a powerful cross-section of Connecticut’s cultural infrastructure. Each brings deep community roots, artistic excellence, and a commitment to evolving how the arts function within a broader economic ecosystem.

The Bushnell Performing Arts Center

Based in Hartford, The Bushnell is one of the region’s premier performing arts venues, known for presenting Broadway tours, concerts, and large-scale productions. With a long-standing reputation for artistic excellence and audience reach, The Bushnell plays a critical role in connecting national work to Connecticut communities. Through Collective CT, it expands its role into early-stage incubation, supporting the development of new work at the earliest phases of creation.

Garde Arts Center

Located in New London, the Garde Arts Center is a historic cultural anchor serving southeastern Connecticut. With a mission rooted in accessibility and community engagement, the Garde presents a dynamic range of programming - from film to live performance - while serving as a vibrant gathering place for civic life. Through its participation in Collective CT, the Garde is also emerging as a regional incubator for cultural entrepreneurship and the creator economy, supporting artists in developing work that resonates both locally and beyond.

TheaterWorks New Milford

TheaterWorks New Milford is a respected regional-based producing theater known for its diverse programming and commitment to both classic and contemporary works for all of Northwestern CT. With strong ties to local artists and audiences, it brings a grassroots non- equity perspective to the cohort. Within Collective CT, TheaterWorks is exploring how smaller-scale institutions can serve as nimble incubators for new entrepreneurial, entertainment ventures, bridging community engagement with scalable artistic development. theatreworks.us

Arts Council of Greater New Haven

Serving as a designated regional service organization, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven supports artists and cultural organizations through funding, advocacy, and shared services. Its role in Collective CT is both infrastructural and strategic—helping to design systems that enable resource sharing, artist support, and ecosystem-wide coordination. The Council represents a critical layer of connective tissue in building a sustainable cultural economy.

Ivoryton Playhouse

One of the oldest continuously operating summer theaters in the United States, the Ivoryton Playhouse blends historic legacy with contemporary production. Known for its professional productions and strong community ties, Ivoryton brings deep experience in developing and presenting theatrical work. Through Collective CT, it is expanding into a model that integrates development, incubation, and long-term participation in the success of new works.

Building a New Cultural Economy

This inaugural cohort marks a step toward building a new kind of cultural infrastructure—one that aligns artistic practice with economic strategy, and public mission with sustainable growth.

The Cultural Innovation Lab at Yale was created to address a longstanding gap: while STEM innovation has benefited from robust systems of commercialization and support, cultural production has largely been excluded from those pathways. Collective CT begins to close that gap by embedding business strategy, legal frameworks, and access to capital directly into the creative process.

At the center of this work are the artists. Across all five organizations, participating artists are developing new work as ventures—building MVPs, testing audiences, and structuring projects for long-term sustainability and ownership. This work culminates at the Yale Innovation Summit, where all five nonprofits and their artists will be featured in the Collective CT Showcase on Day 2 in OC Marsh Hall—offering a first look at the next generation of cultural ventures emerging from Connecticut.

Together, these five organizations are not only supporting artists—they are helping to prototype a model that can scale across Connecticut and, ultimately, across the country.

We are proud to partner with these institutions as we build the next generation of cultural infrastructure—where ideas become ventures, artists become owners, and culture becomes a driver of long-term economic and civic vitality.