Grantee Database
Women's Audio Mission
Grant Year
2024-25
Grant Program
Statewide and Regional Networks
Award Amount
$46,293.00
Project Description
With support from the California Arts Council, Women’s Audio Mission (WAM) will continue scaling our award-winning music production training, artist recording residencies, mentorship, and performance programs to Los Angeles to meet ever-growing demand for our programs in Southern California. Serving 2,500+ California women/girls/gender-expansive artists from under-resourced communities (96% low-income, 93% BIPOC) every year, WAM addresses the staggering gender inequity in the music and media industries, where fewer than 5% of the people creating the sounds, music, and media in the soundtrack of our lives are women/gender-expansive.
Named “Best Hope for the Future of Music” by the SF Weekly, WAM has been an essential part of the Northern California music ecosystem/community for over 21 years. WAM is ready to bring this successful model to Los Angeles and create a much deeper impact on the music industry.
Organization Summary
WAM has consistently engaged thousands of women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals every year from historically marginalized communities over the last 23 years.
● WAM’s Artist Residency programs provide free recording studio services ($10K value) and artist mentorship/development in WAM’s professional recording studios to 10-15 local female/gender-expansive artists each year, as well as digital distribution and promotion to expand their audience.
● Girls on the Mic (GOTM) annually provides 2,000+ girls/gender-expansive youth from the most under-resourced communities (96% low-income/93% BIPOC/ages 11-18) with free music production and media arts training that inspires them to amplify their voices and creativity.
● WAM Academy provides music production and recording arts training to 500+ women/gender-expansive students every year in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Curriculum includes everything from songwriting, electronic music composition in Ableton Live to industry certifications in Pro Tools recording software Dolby Atmos/Spatial Audio.
● Paid Internship & Job Placement program: WAM’s paid internship program serves 60 college-age women/gender-expansive young adults (94% low-income; 84% BIPOC)/year with hands-on Music production training,, career counseling, mentorship and job placement in creative careers at companies like Dolby, Pixar, NPR, Sony, Disney, ESPN, etc. WAM hosts 6 cohorts/year (3 in SF, 3 in LA).
● Local Sirens Concert Series serves 30-40+ under-represented women artists every year (majority low-income; 100% BIPOC) with performance opportunities at premier venues like Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF Jazz, Brava, Dolby, The Independent, Rickshaw Stop, etc to audiences of 2,000+.
● WAMCon is a national recording arts conference series for women/gender-expansive aspiring music producers, songwriters and recording engineers. WAM has hosted dozens of conferences in Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Boston, and virtually reaching 2,000+ women/gender-expansive people from 30+ countries and featuring music producers, songwriters and recording engineers who have worked with everyone from Selena Gomez to Cardi B to P!nk and Rihanna.
Organization
Women's Audio Mission
Address
542-544 NATOMA ST
#C-1
SAN FRANCISCO
94103-2817
County
San Francisco
Region
Bay Area – San Francisco
Website
Congressional District
California's 11th congressional district
State Assembly District
District 17
State Senate District
District 11
