The Music Bus ROCKS! Local musicians share their talent with kids and the nation

With funding in the arts being continuously cut from school programs we are losing touch with the benefits music has on our lives. That is why The Music Bus ROCKS! has created a mobile environment where the arts can flourish right outside your door. With raising gas prices everyone is taking a hit in their wallets, they save you fuel and time by coming to you!

The Music Bus ROCKS! is a fully interactive music technology classroom that provides a hands-on learning environment for each and every student. Students are able to take advantage of on board computers and music technology software. The Bus is outfitted with a full digital piano and acoustic drum set. They teach every instrument family on the bus and have a high regard for cross training and being able to see, touch, and hear other instruments.

This year, The Music Bus ROCKS! has been invited to Wakarusa Music Festival, a grassroots festival nestled in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas where the beauty of nature synchronizes with the euphoric sounds of live music. They have programming for the festival that will include a junkyard orchestra ensemble with instruments that will be made from re-purposed hardware materials and supplies. In addition, every day of the festival The Music Bus ROCKS! will hold drum circles, jam sessions (in which audience members are strongly encouraged to participate) and music education workshops.

Their ability to be able to share this creatively educational experience with patrons of Wakarusa will give them the ability to spread the word about their work and eventually build a potential donor base that will help partially fund our aspirations of beginning a Non-Profit sponsored project version of The Music Bus ROCKS! that covers a broader spectrum of the arts (visual art, music, dance, theatre, physics of movement, etc.).

The Impact

The Music Bus ROCKS!  wants to be able to share the gift of music with as many people as possible and believe that Wakarusa will give them the visibility that they will need in order to boost donor funds for our sponsored project version of The MBR! They’ve expressed the desire to go into the areas of Austin that are losing arts programs due to federal and state budget cuts and reinstate to children the profound value that the arts have on our personal well being.

blog by Nnedi Agbaroji

“Grounded in Music” Benefit makes it a Musical Night to Remember at the Gibson Showroom

Wednesday night at the Gibson Guitar Showroom in South Austin, Grounded in Music’s 2012 Benefit Concert line-up brought us some big names in Country music. Jack Ingram headlining and co-headlining was Hayes Carll. Savannah Berry opened the show, which was then kicked off with a performance by Grounded in Music’s young students and beneficiaries. An inspiring night of music and a rare opportunity to see some of these performers in an intimate setting.

Photo by Christine Lucas

Jack and Hayes have a great rapport and shared some funny stories with us about growing up in the same suburb in north Houston.

Jack Ingram and Hayes Carll. Photo by Christine Lucas

Hayes Carll and Jack Ingram. Photo by Christine Lucas

Read more about these artists at: http://www.hayescarll.com  and  http://www.jackingram.net

Savannah Berry is just 17 years old and a native of Houston, Texas. A powerful and graceful performer, no doubt we will be hearing a lot more from her.

Savannah Berry. Photo by Christine Lucas

When I spoke with Savannah Berry about why she wanted to be a part of the Grounded in Music Benefit, she said “I wanted to do something good for kids and this benefit spoke to my heart”. “If she had not had music in her own life as a creative outlet, she wouldn’t have had the rich life experiences that come from this passion”. She believes “music brings a heart to heart connection to people and it is a great honor to be a part of this benefit”. Savannah Berry is a testament that music does shape lives.

See a video clip from her performance here. 

You can read more about Savannah Berry at http://savannahberrymusic.com

Blog, photos and video by Christine Lucas

Create Austin Passes!

The Creative Alliance was very excited to see CreateAustin become approved by the City Council.

From Cookie Ruiz’s Speech to the Council

“Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council Members,

In December of 2006 a diverse group of 75 Community Leaders accepted the charge of developing a Cultural Plan for Austin for the next 10 years.  Along the way we worked with hundreds of Austin’s working artists, organizations and representatives of a broad array of creative enterprises…listening to their needs and concerns.  Somewhere in the process we experienced a dramatic shift….we moved from a collection of disparate artistic genres and disciplines comprised of organizations and individuals…. to a collective creative community that annually generates $2.2B in economic activity and is responsible for 44,000 jobs.

So what have we accomplished since our briefing in these chambers two years ago? As the consultant contract ended, a group of citizens gathered in September of 2008 and committed to never let this investment of time and resources sit on the shelf…Our citizen volunteers decided to keep moving forward with a second phase of the process… the process of prioritization…using personal resources and time.  We reviewed the plan’s top 10 recommendations and decided to dig more deeply into the following areas in order to establish clear priorities for implementation….. (See Full text of speech:  Final Endorsement)”

Also- Check out the Official  Resolution Here.

Thanks for rolling out, Austin Arts Community! Was wonderful to see so many of you stand in support of CreateAustin!

Playwright’s Prize Established

–thanks to ArtsBeat ( of the NYTimes) for this scoop! And to our wonderful friend ALT.com for his spreading of the word! —

Playwright’s Prize Established in Honor of Horton Foote

By DAVE ITZKOFF

Horton Foote’s work includes the “Orphan’s Home Cycle” of plays and the screenplays for “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Trip to Bountiful.”

The name and spirit of Horton Foote, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter, will live on in a playwriting award that will be given out for the first time this fall.

Lets proclaim it from the rooftops!(Today ACoT becomes GACA)

United we stand: Executive director of the Austin Circle of Theaters Latifah Taormina (r) and attorney Randy Houston (l) Photo by John Anderson. Credit Austin Chronicle.

At 5:30 pm today, Austin Circle Theatres will become the Greater Austin Creative Alliance (GACA.) The Mayor and the city council will officially announce not only the start of Get Your Art On, but also, give an official welcome to the new alliance.

The past few days have been a blur, and tonight it will become reality.  Saying goodbye to an institution and saying hello to our new Alliance is an exciting thing, and also one that allows us to look back over the past 35 years, and think of all that  has been accomplished.

Huge News! ACoT becomes the Greater Austin Creative Alliance!

 

GET YOUR ART ON Mayoral Proclamation, and press conference
on Austin Circle of Theaters re-branding Austin Circle of Theaters Becomes The Greater Austin Creative Alliance, with expanded mission and scope
______________________________________________________________________________
WHO:
Mayor Lee Leffingwell and The Greater Austin Creative Alliance (formerly Austin Circle of
Theaters), in partnership with the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division and CreateAustin, with sponsor Capital One Bank

WHAT:
Mayoral Proclamation that October is time to “Get Your Art On,” Austin’s month-long celebration of art, culture and creativity in honor of National Arts and Humanities Month. Immediately following
the Mayoral Proclamation, Austin Circle of Theaters will hold a press conference to announce their re-branding as The Greater Austin Creative Alliance.

Meet Anne-Marie:Membership Services Director of ACoT

Random Facts About Anne-Marie!

She has two cats – Rubix Muffin Cubes and Winston Churchill – They already picked out their Halloween costumes – Rubi is going to be an Angel (which is rather ironic) and Winston is going to be a Court Jester (he hopes that people will laugh with him rather than at him) In 6th grade she moved to her family’s farm out in Cedar Creek, TX and had to sometimes do homework by oil lantern for a month before they had electricity poles installed on the property (Not such a big fan of camping these days – maybe this had something to do with it?)

Technical Noms

TECHNICAL

Outstanding Set Design

Theada Bellenger (Les Misérables)

Ann Marie Gordon (Oceana)

Lisa Laratta (Black Snow)

Lisa Laratta (Ophelia)

Mark Pickell and Tommy Grubbs (Killer Joe)

Cliff Simon (The Grapes of Wrath)

Penfold Blog: An Insight into “3 Days of Rain.”

Every week, ACoT  will ask a local producer to blog about an upcoming work. Here is the first installment.

Penfold Theatre Company www.penfoldtheatre.org is opening their much anticipated show, Three Days of Rain, this weekend at the Hideout Theatre. Ryan Crowder, the Producing Artistic Director of Penfold, wrote in about what his tech week is looking like, and how he feels about opening this show.

Tech Theatre Database? Send me your techies.

Along with other exciting changes here at ACoT ( to be discussed at a later date) we are developing a database for all of your fabulous techie folks out there. Just about every week or so, we get a call for a costume designer, or a set designer. “Where can so and so get headshots in lighting speed? Who is a makeup artist that specializes in special effects?” And on and on. I want to send people to you to give you work! But first I need to know who you are!