MusicianCorps Wins Grant to Support Expansion to Los Angeles
July 10, 2012
MusicianCorps was recently awarded a $130,000 grant from the James Irvine Foundation to support its expansion to Los Angeles. MusicianCorps will engage low-income residents and other community members in participatory music activities with a focus in LA’s Boyle Heights neighborhood over the course of two years.
The grant was awarded through the Foundation’s Exploring Engagement Fund, a new initiative to help nonprofit arts organizations engage low-income and/or ethnically diverse populations that have been traditionally underserved by arts nonprofits.
“The James Irvine Foundation is pleased to support MusicianCorps’ program expansion of its community Music Service Days to Los Angeles because it exemplifies the type of audience engagement our new Arts strategy is trying to support,” said Irvine Foundation Senior Program Officer Rick Noguchi.“By piloting a program that offers a collective creation of music in non-traditional arts venues, MusicianCorps will increase the engagement in the arts among low income residents in Boyle Heights. While it was a particularly competitive round of applications, MusicianCorps was compelling because it will expand a proven and valuable model of music creation to an underserved community.”
“We are excited to have the opportunity to bring MusicianCorps Community Days to Los Angeles,” said CEO & Founder Kiff Gallagher. “We look forward to working closely with Boyle Heights residents, community-based organizations, and musicians."
MusicianCorps plans to begin hosting community jam sessions, workshops, and other musical events this Fall.
A full press release is available