Art Problems
Art Problems
Paddy Johnson
EP 108: Will the A Corp Change the World?
47 minutes Posted Apr 3, 2026 at 3:29 pm.
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Show notes
The art world has no HR department. There's no employer to set up health insurance, no emergency fund, no retirement plan. If you’re a freelance artist, that means you’re on your own. Today's guest, Yancey Strickler, co-founder of Kickstarter and founder of Metalabel, thinks that can change with a new business designation called the A-Corp.
The A-Corp is Strickler’s answer to that problem: a new business structure built specifically for artists that comes with legal protection, fair ways to share ownership with collaborators, and eventually, a path to group health insurance. It’s currently a bill before the Colorado Senate — and if it passes, Colorado becomes the template for the rest of the country. Strickler walks me through how it works and makes the case that we’re only at the very beginning of something much bigger.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
 
RELATED LINKS
Artist Corporations
Metalabel
The Creative Independent
TED Talk: Forget Hustle Culture. Behold the Artist Corporation
New Creative Era podcast — Yancey's podcast with Joshua Citarella
Artist Corporations: New Podcast and Early Traction — the episode where Yancey first laid out the A-Corp in detail