Our Mission
Invest. Uplift. Transform.
Whippoorwill Arts is on a mission to provide opportunities for roots musicians and artists to thrive and nurture their creativity with a focus on collaboration, fair wages, equity, and social justice.
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★ In 2024, 318 Music aLIVE concerts, w/ guaranteed pay to 700 musicians performing live for 16,000 members of underserved communities, i.e. elders, unhoused folks, public school children, institutionalized adults. Since 2022, 650 concerts, 31,000 served.
★ Collaborated on two SuperFolk festivals w/ Northwest FolkLife & Washington State History Museum, modeled ethical pay and cost-of-doing-business for working roots musicians in Title 1 Schools, Museum and local public spaces in Tacoma, WA.
★ Presented Whippoorwill’s National Pay Standards for live music performers at five national arts ecosystem conferences, including APAP, CA for the Arts Summit, MEIEA, Country Soul Songbook.
★ Piloted Fair Play Initiative (FPI) to write City Pay Standards legislation for live music performers, in collaboration with Musicians Union, Independent Musicians Alliance. Richmond, CA expected to adopt the first CA ordinance Spring 2025.
★ Developed innovative partnerships with city agencies to increase the number of live performance opportunities in Oakland, CA using Music aLIVE as an integral part of the FPI model.
★ Whippoorwill Ethical Pay Advisory Committee hired roots powerhouse Lilli Lewis to Chair national briefing on FPI model in Spring 2025, with collaborators from Austin, New Orleans, Ford Foundation.
★ Awarded 40 musicians grants up to $25,000 to talented under-the-radar roots musicians for their exceptional creative work through Fellowship and Songbird programs.
★ Received major grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, Levitt Foundation, California Arts Council, Creatives Rebuild New York.
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OUR PROGRAMS
Music aLIVE helps career Roots musicians get back to work with guaranteed pay for live local performances and enriches community through free public concerts in non-traditional venues, such as K-12 public schools, libraries, hospitals, retirement, and elder care centers, etc.
The Whippoorwill Arts Fellowship celebrates the musical accomplishments, extraordinary talent, community spirit and creative soul of working roots musicians. Since 2018, Whippoorwill Arts has awarded eleven fellowships.
Curated Concerts showcases fresh voices and music from Roots musicians for virtual concerts sponsored by organizations like AARP-Oregon and Banjo Boy Coffee. Whippoorwill Arts curates concert series in collaboration with the sponsoring organization which broadcasts it to their members, audience, or volunteers. Check out great music and connection with the your new favorite artists!
Each year Whippoorwill Arts collaborates with exciting festival organizations with shared values to present live music featuring Whippoorwill Arts Fellows and other regional and national roots musicians. Partner organizations—such as Freshgrass Foundation and Northwest Folklife—value working musicians, equity pay and booking, and building community.
In 2021, Whippoorwill Arts partnered with research powerhouse Slover Linett on a landmark national survey of roots musicians. The data collection included more than 1,200 working musicians across multiple categories, as well as four focus groups and numerous cognitive interviews. The results are in and Whippoorwill Arts and it’s allies are busy working on reforms.
In Support of Racial & Social Justice
Whippoorwill Arts is an Anti-Racist organization. We stand with All Black Lives Matter and the Movement to Defend Black Lives and all people of marginalized identities vulnerable to systemic discrimination and policies that do not fully include and embrace their humanity. As non-profit leaders, artists and producers, here is our commitment and plan:
We will hire and highlight BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ Artists and marginalized artists.
We will actively seek diverse applicants for all intern, contract and staff positions. We commit to be inclusive of all humans regardless of race, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status.
