Crème Fraîche is an artist incubator based in London, inspired by incubator programmes in the tech and start-up sectors. We select the most promising graduating artists from London’s art school degree shows, and aim to equip them with the understanding, exposure, and skills to progress towards a successful and sustainable career. We do this through a programme of mentoring workshops and ‘crits’ with art world professionals, solo and group exhibitions, and a bunch of other stuff that we think helpful.

The program runs over two years - we currently have four first-year artists and five second-year artists. The first year has a focus on collective mentoring workshops and informal solo salon shows, hosted at the Crème Fraîche Viewing Rooms in Bloomsbury. The second, ‘accelerator’ year, which includes a major public solo show in an external space, allows us to hone in on the needs of each artist, with a view to helping them secure opportunities beyond Crème Fraîche.

The programme runs out of two spaces in central(-ish) London: a painting studio in Westbourne Grove, which accommodates three painters and openings for salon shows with larger-scale works, and the by-appointment Viewing Rooms in Bloomsbury, with two rooms that allow us to show both a solo presentation and a rotating curation of works by the entire cohort.

While artists are on the programme, we represent them much as a commercial gallery might do - there is no fee to be on the programme, and it is funded solely by revenues from sales of artists’ work - although we encourage and help facilitate their working with other curators and galleries.