Check Out Our Press Release Talking About The Arts Equity Reimagined Fund Grant!

UniSound receives $95,000 grant to continue Black Teaching Artists-in-Residence program 

The Arts Equity Reimagined Fund award will help fund UniSound through May 2022 

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (June 21 4, 2021) – This past May, UniSound, a coalition of over 35 youth music organizations in southwestern Pennsylvania, was chosen as a recipient of a $95,000 grant from the Arts  Equity Reimagined Fund which will help fund UniSound programs, specifically the Black Teaching Artists-In-Residence (BTAR) program (BTAR) through May of 2022.

The BTAR program was started with the purpose of supporting the music practice and professional development of Black teaching artists in the Pittsburgh area. The Inaugural BTARs, Lyn Starr and Brittany Trotter, have gotten the program off to a strong start. Lyn has been studying music since he was ten years old. He has an interest for both Hip-Hop and Classical music. Lyn has been using his time as a BTAR to work on a Hip-Hopera (Hip-Hop Opera), where the two genres are combined. Brittany Trotter works as a performer and educator. She serves as an educator at three Universities, along with many other music programs, as a Flute Instructor. She has been using her time as a BTAR to show how flute is becoming more popular in Hip-Hop music along with the similarities that are found in both classical and Hip-Hop. This grant money will ensure when their time as BTARs ends in September, there will be plenty of resources available for the next chosen BTARs to be as successful as the first to keep the momentum going.

The Arts Equity Reimagined Fund is made up of the COVID-19 Arts Working Group, which is a collaboration of 17 foundations along with an anonymous donor, all located in the Pittsburgh area. These foundations include Allegheny Regional Asset District, Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, The Benter Foundation, The Buhl Foundation, Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, The Community Foundation of Westmoreland County, The Community Foundation of Fayette County, Eden Hall Foundation, The Fine Foundation, The Grable Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, Henry L. Hillman Foundation, The McCune Foundation, Richard King Mellon Foundation, Opportunity Fund, The Pittsburgh Foundation , and Henry John Simonds Foundation.

The Funding Principles:

The COVID-19 Arts Working Group decided to follow five guiding principles which included addressing and prioritizing change with mutual accountability, being action-oriented and transparent, supporting a sustaining and equitable arts ecology, envisioning a strong and healthy arts community, and providing holistic support of the arts community.

Questions about the UniSound and the BTAR Program should be directed to Emily Bovan at emily@unisound.us.

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About UniSound: UniSound’s mission is to create a more accessible, sustainable, and equitable youth music ecosystem in the greater Pittsburgh area through building an alliance of organizations that provide music education and performance opportunities for youth. UniSound is a program of Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestras, but is ultimately a collaborative project of more than 35 Pittsburgh area organizations that share a common trait of valuing and/or providing opportunities for children and/or teens to create music out-of-school time.