INTEMPO

Stamford, CT

INTEMPO offers children the opportunity to express themselves artistically through traditional and classical music and instrumentation. Founded in 2011 by Angelica Durrell, INTEMPO teaches music to over 1,000 young people ages 3-17. In their core afterschool program and summer music camp, almost every student comes from an immigrant background. Their newest music program at three Stamford, CT, public schools is specifically for children who are new arrivals/English Learners—children who have flown largely under the public schools’ radar during the pandemic.

The organization is committed to connecting the dots between intercultural music education and its influence on the socioemotional and intellectual development of children. They offer a repertoire that reflects the diversity of their students’ cultures and communities. Through the joy of making music together, INTEMPO aims to broaden children’s understanding of the world, as well as build skills that will serve them well in every aspect of their lives.

RYSE Youth Center

Richmond, CA

RYSE Youth Center is a place where integral parts of a hurting and glorious city come to shed conflict so that they may seek and create solutions. When young people first began dreaming and visioning a transformative space in Richmond and the larger Bay Area Community back in 2002, they were clear that music, arts, culture, justice and healing had to be core to the work. These young luminaries visioned a world where both their creativity and their heart had a safe place to reimagine and dream all that RYSE is manifesting today.

Today, RYSE has launched RYSE Commons, a 45,000 sq. ft. youth designed campus for music, arts, culture and healing. The organization is reminded about the audacity and courage that the founding youth leaders and staff had to dream something that most people said was impossible and would never happen in Richmond.

The Heartbeat Music Project

Crownpoint, NM - Navajo Nation

The Heartbeat Music Project (HMP) offers tuition-free music education and Diné cultural education to Navajo youth. HMP provides an opportunity for Diné youth to study, create music, and play instruments that they would not otherwise have. In addition to expanding economic access, HMP is dedicated to disrupting colonial systems that tell Diné youth that Western music and instruments are only for “elites” and not for them.

Through HMP, students study and create music while deepening their relationship to Diné cultural identity and language, thereby understanding its intersections with past and present colonial landscapes. Students learn both traditional Diné music and Western music and theory. In this way, they can utilize both systems within their production of traditional music and Western music - transforming and reimagining both.

We Are Culture Creators

Detroit, MI

We are Culture Creators pride themselves in being more than music. They provide high quality arts/entrepreneurship education for young people of color in the city of Detroit with an emphasis on professional development, strategic goal setting, aesthetics, and artistic integrity. This education is held in a space that reflects their community and their culture, and is built on a foundation of family, inclusion, safety, access and love.

Founders Michael Reyes and Elizabeth Stone started with a simple idea: provide a loving and encouraging space for up and coming youth hip hop artists and fill that space with the professional equipment and the necessary training to allow those young people to actualize their abilities, talents, goals, and dreams. They furthered that idea by providing workshops and practical training and discussions in financial literacy, artist management, community organizing, entrepreneurship and business. We Are Culture Creators has established itself as a growing and expanding program, providing young people with opportunities in both the fields of business and community. Participants are the next generation of Detroit entertainers and entrepreneurs.

White Hall Arts Academy

Los Angeles, CA

The White Hall Arts Academy (WHAA) is a performing arts organization in South Los Angeles. Founded in 2011, by Berklee College of Music alumna Tanisha Hall, the White Hall Arts Academy offers a blend of classical and contemporary conservatory level training to children and adults. In the second largest city in the United States, the community of South Los Angeles, home to a multicultural mix of 75,000 middle and lower income residents, is an arts desert. Students in South LA have very limited formal arts education resources. This made Ms. Hall take notice. Seeking to make a difference, in 2002, she began offering low cost private music lessons in her home.

Now almost twenty years later, the White Hall Arts Academy has over 100 students enrolled in private lessons, 200 students in group classes and provides music education to over 500 at schools and youth centers throughout South Los Angeles and Compton. Leveraging digital online communications, to date, the WHAA has instructed over 5,000 students including a global reach to students in Australia, India, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, China, Singapore and throughout the United States.

Media Rhythm Institute

Baltimore, MD

The Media Rhythm Institute (“MRI”) is a collective of youth media arts programs that engage youth to explore their passions and strengthen their skills in music and media. MRI was established in 2017 to fill the gap in arts education opportunities for young creatives in Baltimore City and to create accessibility to the tools that can leverage their talents to set economic foundations and sustainability. As an arts educational incubator for creatives, MRI develops the next generation of industry professionals through hands-on training, live performance opportunities, and field experiences.

Using hip hop as a foundation, MRI’s music programming focuses on music composition and performance; music journalism; djing, and sound engineering for their community. Their aim is to ensure the existence of accessible resources, exposure, visibility, advocacy, and confidence for young creatives.

Totem Star

Seattle, WA

Since 2010, Totem Star has championed the voices of talented young recording artists in the studio and on the stage through music production, performance, and mentorship. Totem Star began with Daniel Pak and Thaddeus Turner lugging a studio in a suitcase to mentor young people ages 14-21 in music production, instrument lessons, music business, and life skills. Eleven years later they’ve produced countless artists, albums, shows, workshops, and community gatherings, having served over 3,500 young people in the greater Seattle area and beyond.

Currently led by Daniel Pak, Totem Star is partnering with the City of Seattle and The Cultural Space Agency, a public development authority, to build a new home and recording studio at historic landmark King Street Station in an effort to secure arts and cultural spaces as the "ultimate protection against displacement" (Crosscut, November 2020).

Transparency is important in the work we do.

Watch our ‘Accelerator Awards Prize Process’ video, as we guide you step-by-step through the selection process.

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