The Tank Producers Cohort - Fellows

The Tank Producers Cohort is an innovative professional development program for emerging creative producers, generously funded by the Mellon Foundation.

About The Tank

Founded in 2003, The Tank is a multi-disciplinary non-profit arts presenter and producer, which provides a home to emerging artists working across all disciplines, including theater, comedy, dance, film, music, puppetry, and storytelling. Led by Artistic Director Meghan Finn, Director of Artistic Development Johnny G. Lloyd, and Managing Producer Molly FitzMaurice, The Tank champions emerging artists engaged in the pursuit of new ideas and forms of expression. In doing so the company removes the economic barriers from the creation of new work for artists launching their careers and experimenting within their art form. From the company’s home with two theaters on 36th Street, The Tank serves over 3,000 artists every year, presents 800 - 1,000 performances, and welcomes an average of 36,000 audience members annually. The company fully produces a curated season of 10-18 theatrical World or New York premieres each season.

About The Tank Producers Cohort

The Tank Producers Cohort is an innovative professional development program for emerging freelance creative producers designed to invest in pathways to increase and expand representation for those who have been traditionally excluded from producing opportunities. This program engages 2-4 early-career producers for one-year fellowships, with optional renewal.

Prospective fellows should be interested in creative and line producing in institutional settings, with a wide array of artists and genres. The Producers Cohort is designed to offer each creative producer opportunities to collaborate with creative project teams, to join in community learning with their peers, to develop professional skills and pathways, and to deepen their practice of producing as an artform, less prohibited by financial pressures.

While the Producers Cohort aims to serve emerging producers, we recognize that creative producing doesn’t look one way: prospective Fellows might be self-producing artists themselves, arts administrators who want to reconnect to a creative practice, produce for their own company, or be experimenting with models of production. Given The Tank’s multi-disciplinary programming and our creative community–that constantly redefines what it means to be an emerging artist–we are prepared to welcome and support Cohort members from a variety of experiences.

Cohort members will participate in biweekly cohort meetings, led by a facilitator and including both practicum discussions with the cohort and facilitator and guest artist sessions with mentor practitioners in the field or specialists leading intensive skill development workshops.

With Tank staff and facilitator mentorship, Fellows will also take on hands-on learning opportunities by producing at The Tank. Each fellowship year, each participant will produce three Core Productions at The Tank. These hands-on opportunities range in scale and genre; because of The Tank’s volume and variety of programming, we will match the cohort members with projects that engage their artistic interests and introduce them to potential long term collaborators, while meeting their level of experience and current practical learning goals.

As a capstone to their fellowship, each cohort member will additionally have the opportunity to produce a presented show at The Tank as the instigating artist, whether to them that means being the generative artist, a curatorial force, or another model that centers creative producing as artistic practice.

To support their in-depth integration into the Tank’s programming, we will provide cohort members with work space in The Tank’s office during the duration of their residency; we will also make Tank meeting and rehearsal space available to them, offering The Tank as an artistic and professional home. Fellows also have access to The Tank’s institutional resources like our Employee Assistance Program, memberships, softwares, and fiscal sponsorship, as well as staff support and mentorship. At the end of their first year, cohort members would meet individually with Tank Leadership to determine whether they will mutually renew their fellowship for a second year.

Each cohort member will receive a $15,000 annual fellowship, paid out throughout the year via bi-weekly payroll. Each year, they can also anticipate available professional development funding for conferences or workshops.

The Tank Producers Cohort is generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and we believe that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom to be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive.