Insurtech Corgi Insurance has launched an Artist Residency Program for artists, illustrators, writers, photographers, filmmakers and other creators working around technology and culture, according to Beinsure. The program will run from Corgi Cafe, the company’s 24/7 community space in San Francisco.
The cafe was built for founders, engineers, investors and operators, and it has already become a regular venue for hackathons, demo days, founder dinners, product launches and late-night build sessions.
Corgi Insurance calls itself the first AI-native insurance company. The business combines insurance experience with an AI-driven operating model and has raised $374 mn since launch, most recently at a $2.6 bn valuation.
With the residency, Corgi is widening the cafe’s role beyond startup activity. The company wants to bring in creators who are documenting, interpreting and shaping how technology moves into culture.
Residents will receive workspace at the cafe’s central warehouse in San Francisco. The venue has 30-foot ceilings, creative tools, materials and access to Corgi’s network of founders and builders.
The program also gives residents routes to present their work through exhibitions, talks, installations, publications and community events. The idea is practical: put artists closer to the people building new technology, then give the startup community more direct contact with creative work and storytelling.
Corgi’s residency comes from the view that major technology companies are shaped by more than product teams. Writers, designers, filmmakers and artists often help explain technical ideas, translate them into public language and give them cultural form.
I fell in love with art and culture while working in crypto and digital art. Seeing creators flourish around community and new technology shaped me deeply, and that vision now lives on through Corgi Cafe
Trevor Owens, Head of Cafe at Corgi
Owens said some of the most important digital art movements grew from shared spaces where people gathered, experimented and supported each other’s work, rather than from formal institutions. He said Corgi wants to bring that ethos into the cafe.
“San Francisco has an incredible community of local artists, and the Artist Residency is our way of investing in the people documenting, interpreting, and shaping this moment in technology and culture,” Owens said.
According to Beinsure, the Artist Residency turns Corgi Cafe into a space where startups and creative work develop side by side. Applications for the first Corgi Artist Residency are now open to local artists interested in working alongside founders, engineers and operators in San Francisco.
