Cultural Access Program

Our Cultural Access program aims to keep American Roots music vital by building and educating new audiences about the importance of the music. Bringing this experience to more people is a priority for the survival of traditional music and MMRF.

Donate to help keep this Program alive!

Online Community:
Our website, e-newsletters and online community building efforts reach more than 10,000 people worldwide each month. Building artists pages on our website, weekly updating social media sites, mounting videos on our YouTube channel and mounting mp3s on our website, vastly enhance the visibility of artists to fans and talent bookers. Furthermore, online community building through MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other social media is essential to building awareness of the artists’ music and appearances. Strong and regular online communication is vital in order to raise awareness of our mission to new audiences throughout the world.

Live Performance:
This Program presents concerts and festivals in North Carolina, across the US and abroad featuring recipient artists often alongside nationally recognized touring acts. Through live performance, Music Maker artists share their gifts and educate the public about the importance of this overlooked musical form.

In the Fall of 2010, MMRF will partner for the seventh consecutive year with the City of Durham to present the Warehouse Blues Series, free roots music concerts for families in the NC Triangle. In 2007, this event won the North Carolina Recreation and Parks Association Arts and Humanities Award for programs serving the 200,000 and over population category.

For six years, Music Maker was a part of the Congressional Blues Festival, educating 2000-3000 people about Traditional American music in our Nation’s Capitol. Every year since 2002, our annual Fishin’ Blues Tournament and Concert bring American roots music to underserved populations in rural Central America, many of which have never experienced live musical performances by anyone but their neighbors.  For the first five years, this event was staged in southwestern Costa Rica, but in 2009 we moved the location to the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. Concert attendees marveled at performances by Durham legend, John Dee Holeman and New Orleans guitarist Little Freddie King and expressed they had never seen a musical performance of this caliber presented in their community of Puerto San Jose, a coastal city of 40,000 inhabitants.

In addition to these events, Music Maker sponsors artist performances at events throughout the World. In the South, MM artists perform at festivals including the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival in Chatham County, NC; the Freedom Creek Blues Festival in Alabama and the Cathead Blues Festival in Clarksdale, MS. In the summer and fall of 2010 the Blues Revue will travel to Europe to perform at prestigious international venues and festivals.

Educational Programming:
Through the Cultural Access Program, Music Maker invites the outside community to experience and learn first hand about the artists we serve and the music they perform. Artists participate in workshops in schools and other community events. In the summer of 2010, Piedmont Bluesman John Dee Holeman performed and talked about the Blues for the Durham Public Library’s Summer Reading Program. Each year, Music Maker partners with Raleigh Charter High School’s Sustaining Roots Music Group (SOOTS) to present workshops and concerts educating high school students about the work of the Foundation and the artists we serve.

Music Maker also has an extensive internship and community service/volunteer program. SOOTS has held numerous service days at the MMRF office and at recipients’ home, including raising money for George Higgs for a Medical Mini-Grant. Each year, we host interns from undergraduate and graduate programs at UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Greensboro, Hampshire College, Elon University, NC State, Yale, Dartmouth, Duke, Meredith College, Evergreen, Univ. of Mississippi and more. Through this program, interns are exposed to the artists and the work of the Foundation, and are proud to carry out the Music Maker mission.

Multi-Media Archive:
In order to preserve audio and video recordings as well as photographs so that future generations will have access to these vital collections, Music Maker maintains a permanent archive at the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill. The archive includes all audio and video recording, biographies, interviews and photographs of every Music Maker artist. Through this collection, Music Maker ensures that as artists grow old and pass, their music and impact on society will not go unheard.