This spring, thousands of Memphis students found themselves facing a very different sort of summer than they expected—one without big get-togethers with friends, trips to the mall, live concerts, or summer camps. And as COVID-19 continued to impact life in America, local organizations who provide those summertime experiences were confronted with a similar reality. So, […]

by Kiesha Davis This summer as we closed out the last learning session for leaders of youth serving music organizations in our Institute for Nonprofit Excellence (INE), a capacity building model developed as an approach to supporting the organizational development goals, we offered a panel discussion on nonprofit operational practices.  Over the prior months, cohort participants […]

by Brittney Boyd Bullock I recently attended the National Guild for Community Arts Education Conference, where I met incredible people working in the field of healing and trauma-related spaces. Now, when I walk into a room I always assess the environment and most times I’m looking for the seat where I want my energy to […]

Memphis Music Initiative was proud to partner with Sound Diplomacy to present the Music Cities Convention in Memphis in October. The conference brought more than 200 people to our city, hailing from 60 cities and 15 countries, to talk about equity and access in a music city. Our own Amand Pugh attended and wrote this […]

Hot, sunny, and beneficial would be the best way to sum up my experience in San Francisco. The Americans for the Arts Conference was held in the beautiful Bay Area from June 14-18. My experience in San Francisco was not typical according to locals that I encountered because of the extreme heat (90 degrees plus!); […]

During the Spring semester of 2017 MMI’s then In-Schools Director, Lecolion Washington, issued a simple request: Attend a workshop and/or conference that will enhance your work. At this point I had been to a few conferences and although they broadened my perspective of the national arts engagement field I wanted something more focused on the […]