The HKB Business Lab supports artists, designers and conservators of the HKB at the interface between ideas and entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurial thinking and action are key objectives of our educational and research mission. The HKB Business Lab supports artists in realizing their own ideas, projects and business ideas in a practical and level-appropriate manner.
We motivate and empower students, alumni and staff at the HKB and in our areas of expertise to develop art and design into sustainable and competitive business models.
We understand artists, designers and cultural producers. We know what drives them and we recognise the challenges they face. We give ample space for the artistic and creative approach. At the same time, we know the factors that are necessary to be entrepreneurially successful as an artist: we see entrepreneurship as a toolbox that enables the successful realization of projects. Topics such as resource management, financing options, marketing and communication, scaling ideas and the concrete implementation of a project are just as much a part of our area of expertise as networking with the right organisation and people.
We advise and support HKB students, alumni/alumnae, researchers and lecturers in realising their projects, founding companies and organisations and successfully starting their own business. We advise artists on commercial and non-commercial activities. Our support services include coaching, mentoring provision of infrastructure as well as networking and financial support.
We are proud of the projects that emerge from the ranks of the HKB and become start-ups. They symbolize our entrepreneurial focus and the high quality of our education.
Offerings for students, researchers, employees and lecturers.
The pop-up office is open to Bachelor’s and Master’s students, researchers, staff and lecturers.
Do you have a project idea and don’t know where and how to start? Are you looking for a spontaneous exchange on entrepreneurial issues over a coffee? Then the pop-up office is the right place for you! We take the time to answer your questions spontaneously, help you take the first steps with your project and make sure that the next ones are bigger!
Open to Bachelor’s and Master’s students, researchers, staff and lecturers. Appointments by arrangement.
Are you interested in entrepreneurship and would like to know what opportunities HKB and the Business Lab can offer you? Do you have a project idea and don’t know where and how to start? Are you wondering how you can become partially or fully self-employed after completing your Bachelor’s or Master’s degree? Are you thinking about setting up an expanding your own business, an agency, a special start-up idea, project planning and financing and are looking for support with this challenge? In our coaching sessions, we focus on your individual situation and your specific challenges and support you in realizing your project. We show you possible pathways and tried-and-tested procedures, support you in their implementation and, if necessary, connect you with experts from our network. We offer qualified support in entrepreneurial questions and challenges.
Open to Bachelor students: Y-Skills elective Cultural Entrepreneurship.
At first glance, entrepreneurship plays a marginal role in the arts. Behind the scenes, however, artists not only create art, but are also always active as entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial thinking and action are key prerequisites for successfully pursuing one’s own passion as an artist after graduation. Entrepreneurship is the toolbox that enables a successful life as an artist. Acquiring the relevant skills at an early stage makes all the difference.
This course teaches the fundamental entrepreneurial skills required for successful art creation in a practical and target-oriented manner. What is the entrepreneurial mindset and how can we acquire it? How do we organise ourselves as (future) entrepreneurs? How do we build our own long-term and sustainable existence as cultural entrepreneurs? The project focuses on practical relevance and on being able to apply knowledge imparted directly, so that a broad usable basis in all subject areas is already available after the course. Basic groundwork will be completed in various subject areas including the entrepreneurial mindset, self-management, (self-) marketing, analogue and digital networks and their benefits, creating a basic budget for everyday life, financing ideas and projects, successfully approaching and dealing with foundations, presentation and pitching techniques and an introduction to customer acquisition.
For all interested parties: The HKB Business Lab offers a compact course in basic entrepreneurial knowledge as part of the HKB Summer School.
For Bachelor’s and Master’s students: Up to CHF 150'000 for a project idea by Gebert Rüf.
For researchers: Consultancy and support for InnoSuisse applications.
For researchers: Presentation and pitch training.
