Just over a year ago, I wrote a blog post asking for help in the hopes I could keep Peoria Music Live and Harmonize Peoria alive. Thanks to this supportive music community and so many others who saw the vision, the challenge isn't keeping these organizations alive. It's continuing the momentum forward to grow towards our goals, responsibly and in ways that others can help.
Check out the updates for each organization along with the ways you can continue to help support our goals below.
Harmonize Peoria
This has easily been our biggest year yet.
Christian has been participating in our Garage Band Open Stage for a few years now, and it was exciting to be able to book him a spot with Bruce Moon during July’s First Friday Amplified.
I'm proud of our collaboration with ArtsPartners to create First Fridays Amplified. Together, we've created paid performance opportunities for dozens of musicians, paired seasoned performers with newer artists to help them gain experience, and introduced audiences to incredible local talent while encouraging them to explore local businesses and experience local art.
Our lesson program has grown tremendously, too. In fact, we've reached the point where we're changing our scheduling and administrative systems simply because we've outgrown the way we used to do things. If a program is going to experience problems, that’s a great one to have.
We’ll be a Ignite at the Peoria Civic Center on August 8th, bringing back our Musical Petting Zoo! This photo was taken during last year’s event and attracted a lot of new students for our lessons program!
This summer, we received a grant from the Maggie Bertram Foundation to soundproof portions of our building. Once completed, we'll be able to teach more students at the same time without needing additional space.
Harmonize Peoria was also chosen as the subject of an upcoming segment of You Gotta See This, on WTVP. It’s been partially filmed already and we look forward to them helping share what we're building with a much larger audience!
I’m also excited to be attending the Leadership Exchange in Arts & Disability (LEAD) Conference in Philadelphia this August thanks to a grant. Hosted through the Kennedy Center, LEAD brings together leaders from arts and cultural organizations around the world to share ideas for making programs and the arts in general more accessible to people of all abilities.
All of this growth is exciting, but it also comes with new challenges.
Like many nonprofits, Harmonize Peoria runs on part-time staff and countless volunteer hours. Most grants pay for the programs people see, but not the full amount of the administrative work required to keep those programs running. Scheduling, bookkeeping, fundraising, communication, and planning still have to happen every day, and to do those things, rent and utilities need to be paid.
There are lots of ways people can help Harmonize Peoria and our mission of making music more accessible.
Here are a few easy ways you can help build what's next for HP:
Donate directly via ways listed HERE or through our Facebook fundraiser, pinned HERE.
Tell someone about our programs who might be interested in participating
Take part in programs like Garage Band Open Stage and First Fridays Amplified.
Volunteer your time or talents. Join our volunteer notification list on Facebook HERE.
Check out my Marketplace page where everything we sell goes to benefit Harmonize Peoria.
Every donation, volunteer, and audience member helps us create more opportunities for musicians and more music for our community.
Peoria Music Live
Peoria Music Live has continued growing in ways I never imagined when I started this project in 2017.
It’s a difficult number to wrap my head around, but it is really cool to see in black and white.
Over the past year, our FB content has been viewed more than 4.1 million times, introducing hundreds of thousands of people to local musicians, venues, and events throughout the Peoria Area. And that’s just Facebook! We’ve had 900 hours of YouTube content watched in the same timeframe as well as another 100k views on IG!
I was also honored to be recognized as one of the Journal Star's Top 25 Peoria Area Content Creators last month. Whether I move on in the competition or not, being included in a list with so many other talented creators, meant a lot.
I truly believe Peoria is in the early stages of becoming a music and arts destination, and I'm excited that Peoria Music Live gets to play a small part in helping move us in that direction.
We are currently only scratching the surface of what's possible here. I want to deepen PML’s coverage, create more opportunities for musicians to earn income, collaborate on new ideas, develop additional promotional tools for venues and artists, and continue introducing more people to the incredible music being created right here in the Peoria area!
That also means making difficult decisions about where my time is best spent. Some noticed that I haven’t posted about the PML Takeover this year. That is because that while I love the event, I've decided I need to focus the time and energy on growing the day-to-day work that reaches and supports local musicians all year long. My hope is that as Peoria Music Live continues to grow, we'll eventually have the resources and team to bring events like the Takeover back.
If you see the vision and would like to support the music scene here through Peoria Music Live, here are a few easy ways:
Become a Green Room member ($5/mo) CLICK HERE to learn more and join. Whether you are a musician or a music fan, there are some great ways to save money, access exclusive content, and have a good chance of winning a thing or two!
(New current Green Room member winners will be announced & a new giveaway coming this week!)Subscribe on Facebook ($1/mo) CLICK HERE and then click “Subscribe” - blue button near top right of page. You get one exclusive video per week and occasional extra chances for giveaways!
Looking Ahead
Last year, your support helped us survive. This year, I'm asking you to help us continue growing.
With additional support, we can create more opportunities for musicians, reach more students, strengthen partnerships, bring music into more neighborhoods, and continue showing people why Peoria, Illinois is such a remarkable place to live, work, and create.
Thank you for every share, every donation, every Green Room membership, every volunteer hour, every event you've attended, and every word of encouragement over the years.
You've already helped build something pretty remarkable. I hope you'll continue building it with me!
❤️ Kindall