By Parker Yamasaki, Colorado Sun | Denver-based artist Sarah Darlene has a lot on her plate. She’s a professional artist of about 15 years, teaches classes at the Denver Art Museum and works as a grant writer for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. And those are just her day jobs. She also sits on the board of two nonprofits, and has a new program and meditation app in the works, all part of her mission to bridge arts and wellness.
“That dynamic is just part of the grind, and quite honestly, I love every second of it,” Darlene told The Colorado Sun in a text message. “It’s part of being a public serving and social practice artist.”
What Darlene doesn’t love every second of is hitting roadblocks with insurmountable costs, complicated business structures and “gray zone” intellectual property rights that create friction in her multifaceted practice.
“I’ve seen the ecosystem from multiple angles: as an artist, an educator, an administrator and a fundraiser,” Darlene told the Colorado Senate committee on business, labor and technology on April 9. “What I can say clearly is this: Our current business structures do not reflect how artists actually work, or the value we create.”
Colorado could become the first state to create a business structure designed specifically to support the businesses of artists and creatives. Senate Bill 133 would create “Colorado Artist Companies,” also known as Artist Corporations or A Corps, a subset of a limited liability corporation that emphasizes an artist’s ownership over their work.
“If Taylor Swift had had an A Corps she wouldn’t have lost control of ‘1989,’” said Sen. Jeff Bridges, one of the bill’s two Democratic sponsors, at the Senate committee hearing. The bill passed unanimously in the committee and now heads to Senate appropriations.
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Go here to read more on this (maybe) music life-changing idea:
https://coloradosun.com/2026/04/18/colorado-artist-corporations-ownership/
