I’m writing as a member of the IBMA Foundation’s Arnold Shultz Fund Committee to ask you to let your readers know about our work. The fund was established last year to support activities increasing participation of people of color in bluegrass music. Last year we awarded our first grants. CBA members read in November about one of the groups we helped, Annie Beach’s Jam Pak Band, supporting their collaboration with BASEArizona (Black Alliance and Social Empowerment) to offer bluegrass classes for youth and adults from the African American community.
We helped SF-based Bluegrass Pride collaborate with Fort Worth’s Decolonzing The Music Room to present last June’s digital concert and showcase, “Juneteenth: A Rainbow Revival.”
Californian Stephen Wang, a young Chinese American musician with first generation parents, used his Shultz grant to take bluegrass guitar lessons from Jack Tuttle.
Just recently, the fund joined with Deering Banjos’ Jamie Deering along with Z Mandolin designer Lee Zapis and his wife Angeleke to donate ten new Deering Goodtime banjos to Oakland’s Black Banjo Reclamation Project‘s Banjo Project.
The Arnold Shultz fund committee was pleased by the bluegrass community’s response to last year’s call for applications. We’re looking forward to hearing from new applicants. Deadline for this year is January 31, 2022. Details are at this site: https://bluegrassfoundation.org/arnold-shultz-fund/
We helped SF-based Bluegrass Pride collaborate with Fort Worth’s Decolonzing The Music Room to present last June’s digital concert and showcase, “Juneteenth: A Rainbow Revival.”
Californian Stephen Wang, a young Chinese American musician with first generation parents, used his Shultz grant to take bluegrass guitar lessons from Jack Tuttle.
Just recently, the fund joined with Deering Banjos’ Jamie Deering along with Z Mandolin designer Lee Zapis and his wife Angeleke to donate ten new Deering Goodtime banjos to Oakland’s Black Banjo Reclamation Project‘s Banjo Project.
The Arnold Shultz fund committee was pleased by the bluegrass community’s response to last year’s call for applications. We’re looking forward to hearing from new applicants. Deadline for this year is January 31, 2022. Details are at this site: https://bluegrassfoundation.org/arnold-shultz-fund/
Thanks ,
Neil V Rosenberg
CBA Lifetime Member