SIX ARTISTS x SIX MONTHS

While Cinemaker is already radically affordable, and we deeply believe in the sustainability and impact of our membership model, we wanted to dig a little deeper.

Affordability alone doesn’t fully solve the problem. Even low-cost access can still be out of reach when artists are juggling unstable income, shrinking grants, and the rising cost of simply living in Austin. Media arts and filmmaking remain some of the most expensive creative disciplines—requiring ongoing access to space, equipment, and time just to stay in practice.

So in 2026, we’re running a focused experiment: granting six local media artists total, with three artists at a time, free access to Cinemaker for six-month periods.

This isn’t a new program launching every six months. It’s a test to understand what happens when you remove cost entirely—when artists don’t have to justify their practice, monetize every idea, or trade labor for access.

No deliverables. No strings. No expectation beyond showing up for your own work.

As traditional funding sources continue to dry up, we’re staying committed to radicalizing access in the ways we actually can—by putting real tools in artists’ hands and trusting them to do what artists do best.

This experiment is about sustainability, curiosity, and care. It’s about asking a simple question: what becomes possible when access is truly free?