Stronger, together
A new non-profit model for uplifting artists, students, and other non-profits
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We’ve created a social impact artist advocacy group called Play Together, out of our shared love of education, art, and music. Our continued work at Packback has solidified our belief that there is no single more important way that we can spend our lives than investing in our education system.
Through Play Together, we hope to create a new model of artist management that prioritizes the artists and social impact. Instead of just producing an album, like a typical record label, Play Together produces limited-edition collaborations between one musical artist and one visual artist. The profits from all of the sales from each collaboration going to benefit a selected after-school art or music program in Chicago.
Why we started Play Together
The idea for Play Together came to us a few months ago, as Kasey and I were talking about how his band Violet Crime was growing and starting to play more shows around the city.
We realized that bands have an important platform, and visual artists have a valuable product, that can elevate the experience of the music. By connecting bands and artists together, we could create collaborations that multiplied their impact to benefit not only themselves but also help fund programs working to support the next generation of Chicago Artists.
We were inspired to create Play Together after seeing the incredible outcomes that have come out of our monthly open mic that our company, Packback, hosts. At that monthly, creator-focused open mic, bands have formed (including Kasey’s own band, Violet Crime), people have performed in front of an audience for the very first time, poets have opened the audience’s eyes to new ways of seeing the world, artists have sold out all the work they brought with them to display, we’ve gotten to see our co-founder Mike Shannon pioneer a new style of rap (I’ll call them, “book rap-ports”), and old friends and new have been united around art. Great things happen when we bring creators together.
Play Together Collaboration 1: Launching May 5th, 2019
Our first Collaboration is between Violet Crime and Chicago painter Julius Bautista, benefitting the non-profit Intonation music. Intonation Music is an amazing organization that sends teachers and instruments into K12 schools in Chicago to help students start their own rock bands.
I’m so excited to tell you that we are launching Play Together Collaboration 1 this Sunday, May 5th through a Kickstarter for pre-orders to help us get the word out to a broader community.
Please spread the word, purchase a piece of art, get Violet Crime’s upcoming EP, or just let us know your feedback on Play Together’s concept!
If you believe that arts and music education is critical to students’ development and a key to building an inclusive and creative society (or if you just love Violet Crime’s music or Julius Bautista’s art), we would appreciate your support as we launch Collaboration 1.
How you can support the Play Together mission
If you’d like to support the collaboration, you can back the launch of Collaboration 1 on Kickstarter and get access to the music, art, and more. The Kickstarter closes in just a few days on June 2nd, so your contributions now directly help us drive the biggest possible impact for the Collaboration 1 cause (Intonation Music). We’re hoping to get to 200% of our original goal…and appreciate your help!
View the project on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aneeshkuda/new-way-to-invest-in-art-and-artists-play-together/
When we work together to build the kind of community we want to live in, we are so much greater than the sum of our parts.
Thank you for joining us on this journey!
P.S. We’re thrilled that we just received our 501C3 status a few days ago! I’ve never been so excited to see a letter from the IRS. 😊
Jessica
