The Miami Foundation Accelerator Grants Ideas

Rick Katz, Executive Director of the Miami Jazz Cooperative

Dean Shelly Berg, UM Frost Music School:“The MJC envisions a center where professional and student musicians can interact, teach, learn, and perform. This will grow into an important component of the cultural fabric of our community.”
Michael Spring, Dir., Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs:“MJC is working diligently to preserve, establish, and grow the permanent presence of jazz in Miami. With recent closings of several jazz venues, MJC’s leadership in this initiative is needed now more than ever. “

The MJC mission directly addresses both of the Arts and Culture goals in the Our Miami Report. First, the MJC will fill a void in the arts community by providing a stable, sustainable venue for jazz. The MJC will not compete with other venues but will work to support jazz throughout the community with the conviction that a rising tide lifts all boats. Second, jazz , the original American art form, has great popularity in Europe and Latin America and the MJC will become a tourism draw.

In four years, the MJC has successfully produced four seasons of the Jazz in the Gables concert series (the fifth season begins on 1/14/15), built a growing audience at its popular Rent Party series, now an every Monday night jazz event, produced concerts featuring high school musicians, and presented master classes to jazz programs at Miami-Dade middle and high schools.

Our team has Emmy Nominations, an Academy Award submission and decades of experience working with entertainment moguls like Oprah & Spielberg & organizations like: Google, LinkedIn, MTV, AmEx, the DNC, NBA, NFL, HBO, ABC, Univision & Harpo.

Our experience in both the technology & entertainment sectors uniquely positions us to help young people see the power of what they can achieve with united voices. Ultimately, Amp.it will use art and culture to galvanize youth to "vote" for what they believe in.

We will harness the power of online communities to engage young people in the arts. Furthermore, TBTM will coalesce the Miami creative, tech & business communities to make this city the indispensable gateway for artists from the Global Underground to cross over. It makes the city not only the capital of the Americas, but of a global music movement. Ultimately, Amp.it becomes a platform where youth can "vote" on anything. And which can drive capital from all over the world to Miami.

The Amp.it beta platform launched in late October, after three months of intensive development. Our team has had experience building scalable tech platforms for hundreds of millions of users, as well as multiple media properties that have reached audiences of 100+ million.

Founded in 2011, Antiheroes Project is one of a few non-profit organizations lead by artists with disabilities in Miami. Committed to create and present performing arts and year-round workshops, it fosters inclusion through arts and education.

Fluorescent Moon increases artistic and cultural opportunities in our community, and focuses on community awareness surrounding accessibility issues, while also bridging various cultural/ethnic communities in the Greater Miami. Around 10% or our population lives with disabilities. However, just a few of them have had access to the current vibrant cultural life of our community.

Fluorescent Moon enriches the art and cultural opportunities in our community, dignify and unify our diverse multicultural and multilingual population. Its high artistic quality and the workshops series are representative of the Miami’s growing art community and at the same time, visibility of these artists will allow the artistic voices and concerns of people with disabilities to influence the general cultural landscape and identity of our community.

During 2012, Antiheroes produced Mahagonny, praised by local critics as one of the most relevant Latino theater productions that year. In 2013, Antiheroes won the NEAR Residency to develop Nomadis, cited by local press as a breakthrough work within the Miami theater scene, exhibiting the highest accessibility level of any local Latino organization. The popularity of the Wanderers workshops series inspired the creation of two new series: Finders Keepers for children and the Secret Performances.

We are a new FCC approved 501-C3 FM radio station. WMIV 107.9 FM (aka Shake 108FM). We are music station focused on giving all Miami based non-profits a free FM voice to promote their events. We are also helping the community by playing local artists

We are a non-profit designed to help non-profits by giving them free radio advertisesments announcing their events. We also impact local musicians, local DJs, local artists and local comedians by putting them on the FM radio. We are not like the big national stations which claim to be local Miami radio but they broadcast from palm beach to Key largo and they play the commercialized music over and over and over. Enough !

We are a changemaker because we offer non-profits a platform for free radio announcements. We are changemakers because we play local music, local bands, local DJs... we are helping to change the music scene.

Let's change the over-played commercialized FM stations who claim to be local and make a difference.

We are now promoting a number of non-profits: O Cinema, Health in the Hood, Museum of Science, ECOMB, Surfrider, GiveMiamiDay and the reclamation Project.

We are not playing local bands like: Suenalo, Spam All-Stars, Johnny Dread, Afrobeta and many more.

We are now palying local DJs and comedians.

Tune in... WMIV 107.9 FM

We are about connecting people, passion and philanthropy; enriching the cultural landscape of Miami; and empowering individuals with information & inspiration. We are a grass-roots civic engagement movement. We are PhilanthroFest!

Philanthrofest helps organizations connect both on-line and in real life. We recognize that by helping organizations thrive, they are able to better serve their mission.

By participating in the PhilanthroFest festival, non-profit participants are able to engage Miamians in their cause. Individuals are able to immerse in causes they care about and see how they can help fill unmet needs. Connecting people, passion and philanthropy is a huge step in increasing civic engagement.

By giving residents a platform to meet and greet with over 100 causes we are able to positively effect the Miami metro volunteer rate and push past the 15% mark while increasing the likelihood that they will invest dollars & time into the causes they connect with. Early participation in volunteer activities promotes lifelong civic involvement which is why we are bolstering our attractors for children and young adults. We are creating an engaged citizenry which will collectively elevate Miami.

Brand building and exposure for over 100 causes at each festival; Increased interactions and lead generation for non-profits; Unique fundraising and experiential education opportunities; Exposure for over two dozen visual & performing artists; Community reach via various media including print, TV, on-line radio & social media; Additionally, participating orgs enjoy positive collateral impacts such as growing volunteer & donor base, networking & creating new collaborations with other causes.