New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is pleased to announce the fifth edition of The Incubator for Executive Leaders of Color, a free program that will provide leadership training and community support for up to 18 arts administrators from April to September 2025. By fostering the professional development of leaders of color, we aim to encourage the sustainability and success of their organizations, and the equitability and diversity of the arts industry.

NYFA works with guest workshop facilitators from BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities to cover various leadership topics. The curriculum is designed through the lens of inclusion and racial equity, to resource leaders who influence the culture at their organizations according to these principles. In order to enhance participant outcomes, we slightly modify the program year to year to implement the learnings of the previous editions, which were generously supported by the Altman Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. 

The goals of the program are:

• Serve as an incubator for each individual’s leadership development.
• Explore new frameworks and trends in leadership and apply them to the Arts Administration context in New York City.
• Provide space to discuss issues specific to BIPOC leaders and move toward solutions.
• Increase sustainability at arts and culture organizations by exploring processual changes leaders can practice
• Increase participants’ influence on the arts and cultural organization for which they work, as well as the arts community as a whole.
• Offer individual and group activities that strengthen arts leadership and networking.
• Foster support and collaboration among participants.
• Facilitate an opportunity to engage with a variety of leaders in the arts and spark new ideas.

Selected participants will benefit from:

• A peer cohort-based learning model that relies on shared experiences to explore and develop a greater awareness of your personal leadership style.
• Tools and methods for evoking personal and organizational change.
• Case studies, guest speakers, and group exercises that focus on purpose-centered leadership, including diversity, equity, and inclusion and decision-making frameworks.
• Peer-to-peer exchange and transferable resources which will further develop your organization in the long term and better support the communities you serve.
• An Advisor to meet throughout the program one-on-one, selected from NYFA’s network of arts leaders network and alumni.

Mandatory Program Dates:*

• Intro Meeting: Thursday, April 24, 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM EDT
• Two-Day Opening and Closing Intensives: 
  • Thu, May 8-Fri May 9, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM EDT
  • Thu, Sept 25-Fri, Sept 26, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM EDT
• Virtual Workshops: Thursdays from 10 AM – 12:30 PM EDT
  • May 22, June 5, June 19, July 24, August 28, Sept 11
• Incubator Mixers: (optional evening social gatherings)
  • July 10
  • August 14

The program is designed to be hybrid. The two Two-day intensives are planned to be held in-person, and Check-in meetings and Technical Assistance Workshops will take place online on Zoom. We continue to monitor Covid-19 and in-person meetings will be moved online if necessary.

*Attendance is mandatory for all sessions, so please check your calendar before applying.

Application Deadline: Wednesday, February 26, 2025, 5 PM ET

Eligibility:

• Self-identify as a leader of Color.
• Executive Leaders from non-profit arts and cultural organizations with all size budgets.** (i.e. Executive Director, Artistic Director, Deputy Director, Program Director)
• Commitment to mandatory attendance to all sessions.
• Open to participants from the five boroughs of New York City.

** We acknowledge there are different organizational models in New York City, so if you have any questions about eligibility, please contact us at learning@nyfa.org.

Guidelines:

For the application, we ask you to provide:

• Organization information (i.e. organization mission, focus, website and operational budget.)
• Why you are interested in applying to this program and a list of goals relative to your leadership career path within the next 5+ years.
• Your current role and responsibilities.
• A particular challenge in your current organization that participating in this program could help you address.
• A narrative bio of your professional career.
• Contact details of a Board member or an Advisory committee member of your organization. ***

*** We will only contact them if you are selected into the program. This is to ask for their support for the time commitment involved.

Applications will be reviewed by alumni of NYFA’s Emerging Leaders program and outside executive professionals and local art leaders of Color.

Notification: Applicants will be notified on or before Friday, April 4, 2025.

Questions? Contact NYFA and include “The Incubator for Executive Leaders of Color” in the subject line.

Testimonials:

“The Incubator Program truly came at the perfect moment in my career. My organization is in the midst of a big strategic planning process and time of growth that is requiring me to step up as a leader in a different way. I feel so equipped to meet this moment with tenacity, confidence and clarity because of  the tools I received through the workshops and the relationships I've built with the cohort.”

Deadria Harrington, Member of the Producing Artistic Leadership Team, The Movement Theatre Company

2024 Incubator Participant

“This program exceeded my expectations across all areas. I came in expecting to learn how to improve my organization, but I left with the tools and resources to improve myself. I now have a clear roadmap of how to achieve my goals to maximize my impact not at a single organization but on the broader arts & culture sector. I feel more confident in my skills and recognize that my leadership is not only valuable, but necessary.”

Salvador Muñoz, Director of Public Programs, Poster House

2024 Incubator Participant

“I am genuinely grateful to have participated in this incubator for executive leaders of color. Every single individual in the cohort was extremely thoughtful, committed, and passionate about nonprofit arts work, and the NYFA staff and guest speakers modeled people-centered and empathetic leadership. The topics were extremely relevant to the issues that executive leaders face and the sessions offered concrete tools that could be directly implemented in our daily work and overall strategic thinking. I appreciated the extended 5-month structure of the program, as it gave the cohort to build trust, relationships, and a long-lasting community bond, which is invaluable in this field.”

2024 Incubator Participant

To request an accommodation or assistance in applying, please email Learning@nyfa.org. We ask that requests for accommodation be made as soon as possible or by Wednesday, February 12, 2025 to allow adequate time for staff to support you in submitting an application before the deadline.

This program is made possible with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts.