Vision
Our vision is to cultivate an inclusive music industry that enables all artists to build sustainable careers through their creative talent.
Mission
We empower young people with the skills, resources, and relationships needed to build streams of income through music.
Core Values
Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
The music industry is very much a predominantly white male space. In 2022, 97% of music producers were male and 78% were white. We acknowledge systemic barriers to access and success in the music industry, and we commit to ensure our staff, board of directors, teacher-mentors, partners, curriculum and student-artists are informed and trained to empower BIPOC and Women in the music industry.
Economic Empowerment
To be financially secure is to be flexible and not overly reliant on any one source of income in an ever-changing economy. We teach our student-artists to build multiple skills and streams of active and passive income, so that their wealth is less dependent on the behavior of the job-economy or the market.
Growth-Mindset
We know that having a growth mindset is a key indicator for academic and career success. We encourage students to complete difficult, multi-step projects to build confidence that will serve them well past our fellowship.
Collaborative Community
As an organization, we value strategic community partnerships that work towards mutually beneficial outcomes. Our fellowship encourages the student-artists in our cohort to work with each other, with artists and entrepreneurs in both similar and not-similar fields, and with community organizations to maximize their impact and earning potential.
Data-Informed Innovation
We believe in the power of data to help us make organizational decisions. By accurately tracking, evaluating and presenting our performance data, we are able to improve our service to our community. Additionally, we strongly value student input and incorporate their feedback for each iteration of our summer programming.
Individuality
We acknowledge that our student-artists and teacher-mentors have different learning styles and we are intentional about making sure these groups feel empowered to teach and learn in ways that work best for them. We incorporate this belief into our curriculum and allow students choice for how they would like to complete and present their projects. We provide students with best practices, but encourage our students to make decisions that compliment their creative process.