Cafe Huntington

Project Description:
Music at Merrill Park is the title of my project. My goal is to present 4 acoustic music performances in Merrill Park, a small neighborhood park in Highlawn.

Project Importance:
The project is important for several reasons:
1. It will bring music to a neighborhood filled with children and seniors. In doing so, we hope to introduce children to live music and to enrich the lives of the seniors through live performances.

2. Highlawn is continuing its efforts to build a terrific sense of community among our neighbors. This will provide a forum for people to meet, talk, and get to know their neighbors. We know that as neighbors become more neighborly, the spin off benefits are tremendous: they take more pride in their community, look out for their neighbors, work together to solve complex problems, etc. By doing this, we will showcase the ability for art to address “real” problems.

3. Because the proceeds will be used to pay the artists, it directly supports the artistic community.
How Money Will Be Used:
All of the proceeds will be used to pay musicians and to promote the concerts. I will seek to match the money from the Cafe Huntington grant with a contribution from the Highlawn Neighborhood Association and Create Huntington to pay artists for 4, one hour acoustic concerts in Merrill Park. I envision concerts featuring classic, folk, holiday, and jazz music.

3 Month Goal:
The Highlawn Neighborhood Association has been hoping to launch this for years. However, we have never been in a position to pay musicians for their work. Importantly, receiving this grant will allow us to pay artists rather than asking them to volunteer their time. It will demonstrate that there is true value to art and that artists should be compensated for their talents. Moreover, it will serve as seed funding that may be multiplied by other funding sources.