Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Music Relief Fund
Opens Grant Applications for Musicians
August 24th, 2020 - The Hardly Strictly Music Relief Fund: Bay Area is now accepting applications from local musicians. Created by Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis, this $1.5 million charitable effort seeks to recognize, appreciate, and care for the people who lend their creativity, heart, and hard work to the American roots music ecosystem in the Bay Area. The fund includes $450,000 for individual musicians’ relief and additional support for local music venues and their workers.
The individual grant program is open to roots musicians living full time in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, or Sonoma Counties. Applications will be accepted through September 14, 2020, at 5 p.m. Applicants will be notified about their award status by September 25, 2020, followed immediately by the disbursement of funds.
“Our fund for roots music musicians, in the form of grants up to $2,000 in unrestricted funds, is available to all but will give priority to Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color,” says Frances Hellman, one of the directors of the Hellman Foundation, which since 2011, has focused on supporting local organizations and initiatives homegrown in the Bay Area, while bolstering the impact of partner organizations and engaging in strategic public-private partnerships such as Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. “This is not only because these communities have been historically under-funded by philanthropy, but also because they have been adversely affected by the pandemic.”
The Fund will be administered by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) and the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI). CCI has a longstanding practice of prioritizing those who have been marginalized in the conventional arts and culture field. They have mobilized their many years of expertise in supporting individuals to facilitate COVID relief funds for artists, and have successfully worked with the cities of San Francisco and Oakland, as well as the State of California, on COVID relief. Both ACTA and CCI bring their long commitment and experience as grant-making intermediaries supporting individual artists and cultural communities towards advancing racial and cultural equity.
"This music relief effort recognizes the impact of artists whose roots music reflects the expressions, histories, and values of their communities,” says Amy Kitchener, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Alliance for California Traditional Arts. “In these pandemic times, supporting artists also acknowledges the deep impact musicians have on cultural continuity."
The fund’s definition of American roots music acknowledges that the landscape of music in the United States has evolved from a wide variety of musical genres and peoples. Broadly, roots music is shaped by the American social, cultural, and environmental landscape. Roots music is characterized by its deep connection to people and the communities, reflecting a sense of place, history, values, language, and aesthetics.
In addition to the musician grant program, The Hardly Strictly Music Relief Fund includes a grant program for Bay Area music venues with a track record of presenting American Roots styles. The nomination process for venues is now closed with funding announcements being made soon.
For more information on the individual musicians grant opportunity and to apply, visit:
actaonline.org/hardlystrictly.
For more information on the venue grant opportunity, visit:
http://www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com/2020/music-relief/
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ABOUT ACTA
The Alliance for California Traditional is a nonprofit organization that promotes and supports ways for cultural traditions to thrive now and into the future by providing advocacy, resources, and connections for traditional artists and their communities. As statewide and national leader dedicated to supporting cultural practitioners, our programs, services, and funding opportunities are weaving a more integrated, just, and empathetic social fabric across California, and around the country. ACTA works in partnership with communities, learning from their own articulation of assets, needs, and aspirations in order to craft responsive programs and services. Founded in 1997, ACTA proudly serves as the California Arts Council’s official partner in serving the state’s traditional arts field.
ABOUT CCI
The Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI) was founded in 2001 as a California 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. Its mission is to promote knowledge sharing, networking, and financial independence for individuals in the arts by providing business training, grants, and incubating innovative projects that create new program knowledge, tools and practices for artists in the field, and conditions that contribute to realizing financial self-determination. In addition, by acting as a cross-sector incubator with an informed point of view, CCI advances efforts to improve conditions for artists and all those who share artists’ conditions of low wages, high debt, and too-few assets.
ABOUT HARDLY STRICTLY BLUEGRASS
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is a one of a kind free music festival that takes place in the iconic Golden Gate Park and attracts over half a million fans annually. Founded by Warren and Chris Hellman in 2001, the festival is the single largest activity of the Hellman Foundation. Unlike any other major festival, it is offered free to the public with zero corporate sponsors or advertising. The three-day, multi-stage event features an array of eclectic bands each year from roots and Americana, to funk, rock, soul and more. This year through Let the Music Play On the spirit of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass will be coming to living rooms and backyards across the globe the first weekend in October with the Hardly Strictly Broadcast. The broadcast will feature new performances from the expansive range of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass artists that include first-time performers to legends of American Roots music, along with archival footage from the festival’s past two decades and memories from fans, performers, and staff and priceless gems from the festival’s rich history.