Musician Changemaker Accelerator Academy: Fall 2024 Cohort
Social change incubator helps musicians transform their communities
WILDER, VT, AUGUST, 2024—Music to Life kicks off its next Musician Changemaker Accelerator (MCA) Academy on August 12, 2024, when community-driven musicians will engage in 6.5 months of online training and coaching as social entrepreneurs. The only accelerator of its kind for musicians, the MCA provides training in strategic communication, concept/program development and partnership/resource development, followed by 1:1 coaching with experts in the nonprofit, business and entertainment fields. Developed from best-practice accelerator models in the tech, non-profit, and music industries, the MCA has been positively assessed by Americans for the Arts, the Tuck Consulting Group (at Dartmouth College), the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
“We are elevating a new model of how musicians can make sustainable change, supporting themselves and returning value to their communities” says Liz Stookey Sunde, Co-Founder & Executive Director of Music to Life. “This is about making a living while also making change.”
Music to Life’s MCA Academy application pool grew by 29% this year, with notable increases in diversity (age, race, abilities, genres) and geographic representation. The Fall 2024 cohort of 10 musicians each bring a music-driven community program they will develop or expand, addressing a variety of issues of social concern including: LGBTQ+ representation, accessibility for artists with disabilities, youth mental health, gun violence and energy poverty. These artists work in genres like hip-hop, punk, latin pop, experimental percussion, and world music soundscapes and bring their valuable lived experiences to the cohort.
Shadoe Heiple - Indigenous artist and recent graduate of the Spring 2024 cohort - describes her experience in the MCA as “life changing!” She notes: “This group has been crucial for the next steps of my program. I can better explain what I’m doing and know that I’m on the right track.” Using hand-on project-based learning, including generating grant proposals, business plans and artist value statements, artists build a theoretical and practical roadmap for making their concept a fundable reality. “These topics are MUCH less scary to me now.” says Spring 2024 participant, Jenny Read Van West.
The MCA is made possible by the generosity of The Mellon Foundation, Shards of Light, and other individual and corporate contributors. To download a .pdf of the Fall 2024 cohorts’ projects and profiles, click here or visit their individual profiles below.
