Ratcliffe Center for Creative Entrepreneurship
Ratcliffe Center for Creative Entrepreneurship
Empowering creatives to build sustainable lives as entrepreneurs
POP-UP PITCH COHORT
About Us
Entrepreneurship and creative practice are intertwined for many MICA students seeking purposeful and sustainable pathways post-graduation. The focused yet flexible creative entrepreneurship programming at MICA empowers both artists and designers with a wide range of creative professional tools that support purposeful and successful lives.
Building on MICA’s dedicated commitment to helping creatives develop innovative, socially-conscious businesses, the Ratcliffe Center addresses the evolving needs of students and alumni in the new creative economy. Its activities reflect a comprehensive range of strategies, including curricular, co-curricular and experiential programming; and competition and entrepreneurship showcases. Business skills and 21st-century entrepreneurship training are embedded into MICA’s curriculum.
The Center serves MICA students at all stages of undergraduate, graduate and continuing education, in addition to alumni, through MICA’s extensive network of mentors, access to startup incubators and The Baltimore Creatives Acceleration Network.
Featured Initiatives
BCAN
Baltimore Creatives Acceleration Network (BCAN)
BCAN empowers creative entrepreneurs of all backgrounds and disciplines throughout Baltimore to translate their ingenuity and resourcefulness into thriving creative businesses that sustain their livelihood and strengthen the city.
By promoting the economic empowerment of Baltimore City’s creative entrepreneurs, BCAN aims to foster a stronger, more equitable creative ecosystem and economy in Baltimore.
Since launching in late 2017, BCAN has propelled the growth of 38 creative enterprises through cohort-based acceleration programs and have supported over 1400 local creatives through workshops, networking events, coaching and navigation.
Baltimore Creatives Acceleration Network (BCAN) Highlights
Mica Upstart Video
UP/Start Venture Competition
The UP/Start Venture Competition focuses on incubating and building creative business ventures within the MICA community. Working with industry partners, the Competition provides mentorship, prototyping funds, and seed funding totaling $100,000, funded by the Philip E. and Carole R. Ratcliffe Foundation, to help nurture venture ideas into sustainable businesses. The annual competition is open to MICA graduating students and alumni one year after graduation.
UP/Start Venture Competition Highlights
FYF Logo
First Year Fellows in Creative Entrepreneurship
MICA’s First Year Fellows in Creative Entrepreneurship is a year-long program for first year students focused on integrating studio research with emergent technologies, project-based learning, professional practice, and financial literacy.
Students selected for this experience live together on campus, are enrolled in entrepreneurial focused First Year Experience classes and participate in co-curricular programming specifically designed to support budding entrepreneurship.
Featured Videos
MICA Carol Ratcliffe Tribute Video
MICA expresses its sincere gratitude to our dedicated and generous donor, The Philip E. and Carole Ratcliffe Foundation. The Foundation has been instrumental in the creation of this landmark initiative at MICA. The impact Carole Ratcliffe had on our students is limitless. She was a visionary, one who fervently believed in the power of new, inventive ideas and the huge potential of entrepreneurial education. We recognize and celebrate the contributions made to MICA by Carole Ratcliffe.
MICA Art and Entrepreneurship
Hear from the UP/Start 2017 finalists on what makes artists great entrepreneurs.
MICA UP/Start Venture Competition
Watch the UP/Start Venture Competition finale and hear from the winners. For more information on the competition: https://micapreneurship.weebly.com/upstartcompetition.html
Featured Page Links
Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)
Acknowledged nationally as a premier leader in art and design education, MICA is deliberately cultivating a new generation of artist – one that is capable of seamlessly integrating innovation, entrepreneurship and creative citizenship with contemporary approaches to art, design and media.
Program Highlights
