Tag: Elizabeth Cawein

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Artist Emergency Fund Distributes Grants

ArtsMemphis and Music Export Memphis are distributing $77,190 to 159 artists in Shelby County. The funds come from the Artist Emergency Fund, which became public April 1st and supports artists of all types across music, visual art, film and media arts, literary art, theater, and dance.

The fund was created through a Community Foundation of Greater Memphis COVID-19 Regional Response Fund grant and was compounded with contributions from the Assisi Foundation, Crosstown Arts, Hyde Family Foundation, and individual donors to Music Export Memphis.

Additionally, the Kresge Foundation is giving $100,000 to ArtsMemphis and $85,000 to Music Export Memphis to make continued Artist Emergency Fund granting possible.

ArtsMemphis began a community-wide survey on March 18, 2020 of arts organizations and individual artists across Shelby County to assess the impact of COVID-19. As of this week, 61 organizations and 200 individuals had completed the survey.

Survey data forecasts a total projected loss of income for March 2020 exceeding $1.19 million for organizations and $507K for individuals. Anticipated loss of income for April-June based on cancellations/postponements exceeds $7.4 million for organizations and $1.45 million for individuals. See full survey data here.

The application deadline for the next round of Artist Emergency Fund grants is April 22. Among applications of all artistic genres, Music Export Memphis will continue to partner with ArtsMemphis in receipt, review and reallocation of funds to local musicians.

“In our first round of applicants we saw an average reported loss for musicians of more than $4,000, just for gigs canceled in March and early April,” says Elizabeth Cawein, executive director of Music Export Memphis. “The hit to music professionals who rely on live performance to make a living is truly catastrophic, and it’s far from over.”

Artists may learn more and apply here.

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Music Music Blog

“Tambourine Bash” to Raise Funds for Touring Musicians

CREDIT: Troy Glasgow

Troy Glasgow

Elizabeth Cawein of Music Export Memphis.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Memphis is exploding with musical creativity these days. Acts as diverse as Nots, Aquarian Blood, Ghost Town Blues Band, MonoNeon, Motel Mirrors, the Bo-Keys, and Jack Oblivian are traveling the world, each carrying their own vision of the Bluff City with them. Indeed, the road is the surest way to make a livelihood in music. But it’s a tough way to make a buck.

How can bands keep taking the Memphis sound to the world, in spite of the touring life’s difficulties?

Elizabeth Cawein, of local nonprofit Music Export Memphis (MEM), was contemplating just such a question. MEM, of course, is dedicated to promoting local bands, artists, and studios on a global level, having sponsored Memphi-centric revues and soirees at massive industry confabs like SXSW or AmericanaFest, and promoted cross-cultural exchanges between artists from here and England, among other things.

Perhaps taking her cue from foreign arts programs that often subsidize traveling acts who represent their countries, Cawein hit upon the idea of a local nonprofit that will do the same thing for the Bluff City. Thus was born the Ambassador Grant, a new MEM program just on the cusp of being realized. To kick it off with a splash, MEM is hosting yet another soiree, this time to rally the hometown team. The audience is anyone who wants to support local musicians and the little piece of Memphis they carry on their journey.

Starting with the premise that touring artists based in Memphis will always be sharing the Memphis music story, the Ambassador Grant aims to provide tour support and messaging guidance for them to do it more effectively. MEM is now raising funds to pilot the program with its first-ever benefit, The Tambourine Bash, tonight at Old Dominick Distillery. MEM director Elizabeth Cawein hopes to garner enough support for five to 10 artists, with an initial goal of $10,000.

Artists approved for the Ambassador grant will learn how to share their own Memphis stories. During this training, MEM will help them create content to share (like videos, playlists, blog posts and more) and give them postcards for their merch tables at each show. When they return home, they’ll be asked to provide feedback and some anecdotal reporting.

Artists will be selected for the grant by the Music Export Memphis board based on quality of music, strength of social media engagement and tour schedule. There are no genre restrictions to receive the grant. The dollar amount for each grant will be determined based on the number of dates the band is playing and the geographic reach.

The Tambourine Bash will include craft beer from Crosstown Brewing Company (included with your general admission ticket), Old Dominick cocktails designed by mixologist and musician Sean Murphy (included with your VIP ticket), and live music by The Shotgunbillys and Chinese Connection Dub Embassy. Delicious eats by Chef Shawn Davis, Locals & Legends: A Decade of Erf, and rockstar photo booth designed by Jamie Harmon of Amurica Photo.  $25 General Admission, $50 VIP

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Music Music Features

Music Cities Memphis

CREDIT: Paul Harmer

This week, people will gather in Memphis to talk about music. Sure, that’s hardly news. But this week, Memphis hosts an international conference featuring leading music- and business-savvy minds from as far away as the U.K. and Estonia — and even Tennessee’s other Music City, Nashville — for a symposium on creating strategies to promote music as an engine of growth.

The Music Cities Convention has brought music industry professionals to several cities to discuss how music impacts their identities and economies — and how to help it flourish. This time around, it’s Memphis.

“It’s funny, phones from America can’t call outside the U.S.,” Music Cities Convention (MCC) organizer Shain Shapiro commented when he called me to talk about the conference’s sixth iteration. Shapiro is the managing director of Sound Diplomacy, a London-based development agency that helps clients tweak their music strategy and policy, and the conference organizer for Music Cities.

“I’m a nerd,” Shapiro says, so he found himself interested in things like global connections, building codes, noise curfews, and how music makers and cities could strengthen a symbiotic relationship to bring more profit to both parties. “It wasn’t planned,” Shapiro says of the path that led him to be the creator of an altogether different music conference.

MCC gathers organizers, performers, legal authorities, and cultural ambassadors to discuss the roles music plays in the life of a city. Because promoters or songwriters don’t often ponder noise curfews or the economics of entertainment, there’s a need for parties with different perspectives to view the big picture. And that’s where MCC comes in.

Talks will include “Smart Music Cities: Data Driven to Support Artists,” “Every City Needs a Music Strategy,” and “Time for the Cities: Let Music ‘Take You There’,” a panel asking “How can property developers and the creative industries work more cohesively?”

Planners who have re-made their cities as music destinations, from Tallinn, Estonia, to Chengdu, China, will offer their success stories. Memphis’ own talents will also contribute, from singer/promoter Tonya Dyson, who helped develop the Memphis Slim Collaboratory, to Lawrence Matthews (aka Don Lifted), who pioneered genre-breaking performances in non-traditional venues. Deron Hall of the Memphis Arts Engine and Darren Isom of the Memphis Music Initiative will also contribute.

Other speakers include far-flung performers, academics, activists, and attorneys who know how to capitalize on the musical life of a city: Igor Lozada, the head of culture for the city of Guadalajara, Mexico; Australia’s Emily Barker, whose most recent album was recorded at Sam Phillips Recording Service; Justine Avila, executive director of Nashville’s Music City Music Council; and Shawn King, Colorado’s “Music Ambassador” (and drummer and trumpeter for the indie-folk band Devotchka).

The global perspective of the conference has contributed to its success. Its 2015 debut sold out in Brighton, England. Then in October of that same year, Music Cities made landfall in Washington, D.C. It returned to Brighton in 2016, and the most recent convention was held in Berlin, earlier this year. This week’s Memphis Music Cities Convention will mark the conference’s second hosting in the U.S.

When asked what drew MCC to Memphis, Shapiro says that it was important to him to bring attention to cities that aren’t necessarily giant culture centers like New York or L.A., yet are positioned to benefit from the convention’s ideas.

Another factor, he notes, was the persistence of Music Export Memphis (MEM), a local nonprofit responsible for the successful Memphis Picnic concerts held at South By Southwest and Americana Fest.

MEM founder Elizabeth Cawein hopes the international attention will bring more Memphians into the conversation. She says diverse perspectives can help a city juggle the many strategies for bringing music front and center. “It’s difficult to see [just] one next step,” Cawein says. “There are so many things already in motion. So many strategies that work somewhere else might, with a little experimentation, work here.”

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Music Music Features

Turn Up the Volume

CREDIT: Troy Glasgow

A little over two years ago, local publicist and longtime Memphis music fan Elizabeth Cawein had a big idea. Inspired by recent trips to major music industry events such as Austin’s South By Southwest and Nashville’s Americanafest, where she saw little representation of or from Memphis, Cawein decided to take on the mantle herself.

“My vision was to build a system that benefits musicians and also drives results for the business and tourism communities,” says Cawein. “I’m passionate about this city and our musicians. I’m passionate about telling their story. I felt strongly that we were missing an opportunity to both perpetuate and reinvigorate the Memphis brand as a music city.”

To get the ball rolling, Cawein pitched the idea that would become Music Export Memphis to Phil Trenary and Amy Daniels at the Greater Memphis Chamber, who quickly got on board with the project. With their support, she was able to target a presence at the 2016 Americanafest as her inaugural event. Dubbed the Memphis Picnic, the showcase was an overwhelming success.

“We got some phenomenal earned media at Americanafest last year,” says Cawein. “Our artists were covered in No Depression, Paste, American Songwriter, and more.”

From there, Music Export Memphis more or less took off like a rocket ship. Cawein has since staged another Memphis Picnic at South By Southwest, created a songwriters exchange program with the city of Liverpool (U.K.) called “Memphis to the Mersey,” and attracted a worldwide music conference, the Music Cities Convention, to Memphis. The conference, which focuses on the role of music in civic life, will take place at the Halloran Centre October 25th-27th.

This weekend Cawein will be out on the road again promoting Memphis music — back at Americanafest, where the journey began. The second annual Memphis Picnic at Americanafest, which takes place on Saturday, September 16th at the Filming Station in Nashville, should be nothing short of an extravaganza celebration of all things Bluff City.

In addition to a stacked lineup of local performers, including Crockett Hall, Juju Bushman, Loveland Duren, Grace Askew, and the Rusty Pieces, the event will also feature edibles from the Rendevous, Corky’s, and MemPops, libations from High Cotton Brewing Company and Old Dominick Distillery, a Grizzlies photo booth, a program of Memphis-made music videos curated by IndieMemphis, and a pop-up vinyl-only record shop run by Shangri-La Records.

“I swear, I’ve never done an event that was as seamless and killer as our Americanafest event last year,” says Cawein. “I just kept waiting for something to go wrong! But we have almost doubled the number of partners represented at this event, which I’m excited about. With these events, I always want to showcase as much Memphis stuff as I possibly can — the lineup of music is the main course, and the food, drinks, and extras from Memphis are the side items.”

Beyond Americanafest, Cawein already has a few next steps in mind. Her new big idea is an ambassador’s program of sorts, which would see Music Export Memphis providing tangible tour support (i.e., money) to local artists to help get them out on the road and spread the gospel of Memphis and Memphis music.

“The reality is, they already are [ambassadors],” she says. “I want to give them a little bit of training on the talking points of why Memphis is a great place to visit and live, send them out with promotional merchandise, and cut them a check to support their tour.”

“I think my point here is that, for the most part, my ideas do not require a ton of overhead, a ton of administration. They utilize existing structures and organizations — for example, bringing in our partner the New Memphis Institute to help us with some training for the touring artists on you-should-live-in-Memphis facts — and finding ways to maximize things that are already happening, such as artists touring outside the city.”

Cawein has also recently put a board of directors for Music Export Memphis in place, so that her vision isn’t the only one guiding the organization moving forward.

“I’m excited to get out of the curation business,” she says. “I’ll always enjoy having input on that, but I think deferring to the board — a group of people who really bring varied experiences in Memphis music and varied connections to different scenes — will make this work better, more effectively, and will make Music Export Memphis better able to tell the entire Memphis music story. This was never about me picking artists for a showcase or an opportunity; I just want to facilitate the opportunity. So I’m excited to see what we can do together in 2018.”